Popcorn & Wine
by ghostfacekiller39
Summary: Franziska refused to let any thing or person that would get in the way of perfection into her life, and although irritated at first by Adrian Andrews, she becomes more than attached to Ms. Andrews than she had hoped. Told mostly in Franziska's point of view, but also told in Adrian's at points. Reviews are appreciated. DISCLAIMER: Capcom owns these characters, not me.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

_Perfect_. That was the one word Franziska von Karma was supposed to breathe, supposed to embody, supposed to _be_.

Everything she has ever known has been defined by that one word. Her father had completely understood what that one word meant to him, but now, she questioned whether she knew what it meant to her.

Her father was gone. His nearly unchallenged 40-year winning streak was gone, too. _Nearly _unchallenged. His obsession over that one black mark on his should-be perfect record ultimately became his downfall. Franziska always couldn't help but wonder if she would become like that, too, in her quest for absolute perfection as a prosecutor. Until recently, she pushed that thought as far back into her mind as possible.

But, when she came to America to face that man, that _fool_, her quest for perfection had come to an abrupt end.

Now, here she was in a hospital bed, recovering from a gunshot wound, left alone with her personal demons. That, and some creepy pink-haired doctor. _How did such a foolishly fool of a foolish person ever become such a foolish doctor?_

As soon as that thought left her head, her cell phone began to vibrate on the end table next to her. It was a witness she had prepared for the case she _should_ be prosecuting. A case now in the hands of her foolish younger brother. A case she would have slammed the door shut on in 10 minutes.

Reluctantly, she picked up the phone.

"Franziska von Karma speaking."

"H-h-Hi...this is A-Adrian Andrews...do you remember me?"

_Unfortunately_. "What is it do you need? I'm quite busy at the moment." She wasn't, but she did not feel like wasting her time with this fool of a witness.

"That prosecutor...E-Edgeworth...he's not going to get that evil man a guilty verdict...I just know it..."

_Edgeworth, you fool! How can you be such a shame to the von Karma name!?_ "Hmph. I am no longer on this case. How does this affect me?"

"I-it doesn't...but I did what you said! I thought it was working...but it didn't...he still got me to tell them everything you said not to..."

At this moment, Franziska felt that this women needed a full course meal of whip. "Again, I am no longer on this case. This doesn't affect me." She tried to hide the anxiety in her voice, but wasn't able to tell if it worked or not. She knew she was itching to get this man that guilty verdict he, like every other criminal, deserved.

"S-s-s-sorry..."

At this point, Franziska did not feel like wasting her time with this conversation any longer, so she simply hung up the phone.

After a while, Franziska grew bored with her surroundings, and decided to take a nap for no other reason than the speed up the time she had to spend in this godforsaken place...

"_You failed me, Franziska. You are no longer perfect. You don't deserve the von Karma name. To be defeated by that oaf of a defense attorney as much as you have...unacceptable."_

_ "N-No, papa...please...I can still be perfect..."_

"_Too late..."_

Franziska awoke with a gasp. She let out a shudder..._Thank god...it was just a nightmare..._


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Over a year had passed since that trial. Adrian would never forget it. She was almost convicted of murder, her deepest, darkest secrets had been revealed to the world...but, there's always good to be found in any situation, no matter how dire the circumstances.

She had met...her. Franziska von Karma. She knew when she saw that German goddess she had found her pillar of strength. Ms. von Karma was even kind enough to leave her her own personal phone number in Germany, in case she needed to talk.

Adrian neglected the oppurtunity to call numerous times, however, out of sheer nervousness. Franziska was different than Celeste...and Adrian had her thoughts on why...but she knew that Franziska wouldn't feel the same...and that's why Adrian had trouble establishing any sort of contact. Fear of rejection.

_Come on, Adrian...it's Friday night, and you're just sitting here on your couch, in your apartment, with your phone in your hand, wanting to make that call...why can't you...why can't I do it? _

Adrian began getting irritated and furrowed her brow._ No. Not again. I'm not going to sit around and hold the_ _phone in my hand. It's time._

Adrian dialed the numbers neatly written on Ms. von Karma's stationary quickly, so she couldn't have any second thoughts on making that call. She felt confident that she could do it. She was ready.

All that confidence flushed away when she heard that voice on the other line.

"Franziska von Karma speaking."

"O-Oh! Ms. von Karma! H-how are you?" _Stupid...stupid...stupid..._

The voice on the other line sounded irritated. "Who is this that I am speaking to?"

"Oh! It's j-just me...A-Adrian Andrews...remember me? From the Engarde case?" _Stupid stupid stupid._

Franziska's response had an icy tone to it. "...hmph. Of course. How may I be of assistance, Ms. Andrews?"

Adrian was somewhat hurt when she noticed the undertones and hints left in Ms. von Karma's "...I just wanted to talk." The hurt in Adrian's voice must've been noticable, as Franziska quickly changed her demeanor.

"I'm coming to America tonight. I'm prosecuting a case against my younger brother tomorrow morning..." Before Franziska could finish, Adrian cut her off.

"_Tomorrow morning_!? How can you be prepared if you're only coming here_ tonight_!?"

With a touch of pride in her voice, Franziska smugly replied; "_Never_ underestimate the power of a von Karma, Ms. Andrews. Now, as I was saying..."

Adrian was able to perceive something was bothering her...something she'd never been able to tell about the German prosecuting prodigy. "Yes? Is something wrong, Ms. von Karma?"

"...I'm sorry, I'm just not able to find...the right...words..." Adrian's heart began beating faster and faster with each passing moment of silence. _Does she like me? I mean, I like her...there's nothing wrong with that, is there? I mean, I've only felt this way about one other woman before..._

She was cut off suddenly by Franziska's voice. "I would like to meet up with you somewhere...after the trial, of course...we can do as friends do...you know, 'hang out'...I think is what they say in America?"

Adrian decided that the thick German accent was a definate turn on...but also that she must keep in mind that it would be a strictly platonic meeting. "Yes, it sounds like fun...Where would you like to meet up at?"

Franziska must've been mulling over her numerous choices...after all they were going to be in L.A., weren't they? "...I can remember a small coffee shop on the corner near the prosecutor's offices...maybe there? Around 2:30, perhaps?"

Adrian was gleaming. "Alright! I'll see you then! Bye-bye!"

"Hmph."

She hung up her new iPhone 5 she had recently had shipped in, and saved the number into her contact list. "...Adrian Andrews, 555-0681." Franziska smiled as she read the contact info out loud. She hadn't ever had many friends to "Hang out" with, as Americans often say..._but I certainly haven't had any like Adrian...Ach! Don't be a fool! Love is only for fools, and you are not a fool! You are Franziska von Karma, heir to the legendary von Karma name...and she's a woman! You can't carry on that name with another woman, you... _

Franziska had decided she was getting much to far ahead of herself, and tried to stop thinking about it immediately... but she couldn't stop thinking about how ex

icited she was to meet up with Ad- Ms. Andrews tomorrow, and along with the thoughts of excitement came thoughts of fear. _What if I make a fool out of myself?_ Franziska pondered. _Achtung, Franziska! You might make yourself out to be a fool tomorrow! ...What will you do then? This was a bad idea._

Franziska was getting ready to call Adrian and cancel their appointment, but as she reached for her iPhone, the first-class flight attendant came by and began foolishly rambling on about how cell phones interfered with the plane's doohickeys. After feeling the wrath of an irritated Franziska von Karma and her whip, she left rather quickly.

After the flight attendant had left sight, Franziska put away her phone, popping a piece of bubblegum into her mouth in order to help soothe the pain of the airplane's take-off shattering her eardrums. _It'll just have to wait until I reach America... _


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Franziska von Karma gripped tightly onto her phone after the trial. She had been defeated by her own younger brother. The fool and his "truth." However, that's not what was important at the moment. She was too worried about what would happen with Ms. Andrews today, and had been struggling back and forth in her mind

Franziska tapped impatiently on the coffee house table, situated outside the cafe itself. She did not mind the quaint little corner bistro; it had a small home-like atmosphere with great service, and it was run by some older man, who worked the entire shop with his wife. It was a great place to relax on a break, because of its proximity to the Prosecutor's Office and great service. Oh no, Franziska did not mind the small coffee shop at all. What she did mind is that she had an appointment for 2:30, and it was already 2:33, with no sign of Ms. Andrews.

Franziska let out an irritated sigh. _What kind of foolishly foolish fool of a woman would be so foolish as to be 3 minutes late to her appointment? I shall not accept such foolish behavior._

As soon as the thought entered her mind to grab her whip, she suddenly felt ashamed. How could she think those things about Ms. Andrews?

She checked her phone again. _2:34 and still no sign of Ad-..._

Out of nowhere, she heard a voice yelp; "MS. VON KARMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

She turned to see Ms. Andrews running along hurredly, grasping her purse and gasping for air.

When Adrian got to the table and pulled out her seat, Franziska coldly stated "You're late."

Adrian started sputtering out sounds; "S-sorry! *pant, pant, pant* My car...*pant, wheeze, pant*...broke down... *pant, pant*...I ran...*wheeze, wheeze*..." After this statement, she pulled out her inhaler and took a puff of it.

Franziska could not hide her surprise. _She's asthmatic and she ran all the way here for me?_ "All is forgiven. Are you...feeling...ok?" Franziska was never one for small talk or caring for the well-being for others, and thus had no idea how to communicate her worries for Adrian effectively, and suddenly felt foolish because of her awkward attempt to communicate them.

Adrian flashed a sincere smile, and Franziska noticed the way her eyes lit up as she did so. "Yes, I'm fine Ms. von Karma..."

"Please, address me as Franziska...that's what friends do...is it not?"

"Ah, yes...Franziska." Franziska hid her enjoyment at this small advancement in their relationship, but Adrian seemed to like the way it rolled off of her tongue. "So, Franziska...shall we order our coffee?"

"Y-yes...let's." Franziska motioned for the old man, Mr. Tobias Koffi, to come take their order.

He was of average height, but rather stout in appearance, with blindingly white hair only on the sides of his head and a pepper gray mustache. He seemed to be perpetually grinning, to the point his eyes never seemed to be open, as if he was constantly a small boy playing with his favorite toy. "Ho ho! Ms. von Karma! It seems like ages since I've seen you last! And who's this? You've brought a friend? That's pleasant! I've only ever seen you here alone!"

Franziska's face flushed red. _You damned fool! Believe me, if it were anyone else sitting across from me, you would be feeling enough whip leather to be able to pick the leather specks out of your scars and make a pair of leather gloves with it! _

The kind, chubby old man noticed her embarrassment and felt ashamed for humiliating his customer. "Aww, pucker up, buttercup! This round's on the house!"

"...Thank you, but that will not be necessary."

"Ho ho! As you wish, Ms. von Karma! So what'll you two beautiful young ladies be having?" Franziska quietly thought to herself; _doesn't that old man have a wife to call beautiful instead of us?_

Adrian spoke up; "I'd like to have a vanilla iced coffee with the pastry of the day on the side."

Mr. Koffi smiled at this order to the extent it seemed his dark gray, bushy mustache was smiling as well. No one ever seemed to order his homemade pastries, and he put a lot of effort into making them. He let out a laugh that seemed to work it's way up from his stomach to going out his mouth. "Ho ho ho! Fine choice, young lady. And you, Ms. von Karma?"

"I'll be having my usual; a double shot expresso with a caramel topping on the whipped cream." Franziska thought that the only order she's ever placed at this particular establishment was simply perfect to sip on while reading a newspaper, whip in hand. So why wouldn't it be perfect to have over a conversation with Ms. Andrews?

"Thanks for your business, and it's certainly a pleasure to have to lovely ladies such as yourselves visit this little coffee house. You certainly do grace us with..."

Franziska shot him a glare that told him all he needed to know. He left rather quickly to go fetch their orders.

There was a silence between them, and although with most people Franziska would consider this silence a complete and utter waste of her precious time, it just felt different with Adrian, as she didn't seem to mind.

Ms. Andrews peered up at the sky; The sun brought out the shining blue in her eyes, and this excited Franziska. _Wow...she looks...perfect..._

Adrian spoke up; "Urghh...I'm trying out contact lenses today...I really do prefer my glasses. I think I should go back, don't you?"

So _that's_ what seemed different about her appearance since she last saw her; "I think you look beautiful either way." Franziska suddenly felt the figurative foot go in her mouth, and she couldn't help but let her face turn red with embarrassment. _I can't believe I said something as foolish as that! What if she finds out my true feelings...?_

Adrian simply smiled and replied with a rather happy "Thank you!" Franziska finally felt her humiliation go away, and had to restrain herself from further hinting Adrian of her affections with a sigh of relief.

Mr. Koffi brought them their orders, and thanked them again for choosing his coffee house. Both Franziska and Adrian thought it strange when he darted off to help some shady-looking figure in a black leather jacket and the shadow from the bill of the hat obscuring his face, but both just shrugged it off.

Adrian seemed to be gazing at Franziska longingly, but the generally overconfident prosecutor simply shrugged it off, seemingly embarrassing Adrian. _There's no way these feelings are mutual...just not possible._

Adrian quickly piped up by asking Franziska about life in Germany. _Finally,_ Franziska thought; _I can turn the tables on this conversation and take control of it, preventing any further embarrassment._

"I do not wish to waste my time with idle conversation." Franziska said with the generally icy and irritated look on her face. "But, if you must know, I'm still perfect in Germany. There's no better prosecutor in the country than me, Franziska von Karma." Pride and confidence seemed to be radiating from Franziska's persona.

"O-oh. I'm glad that things are going great over there..."

The rest of the "date" seemed to follow this pattern. Adrian asking a question, and Franziska confidently putting her down while bragging on herself. Adrian didn't seem to mind this treatment; which both worried and excited Franziska.

"I must be going, Ms. Andrews. I have business to tend to."

"Oh...well...I'll be seeing you around. I'll call you sometime, ok?" Adrian didn't seem ready for this to be over, and honestly, Franziska herself wasn't either.

"You need a ride home. I'll provide you with one. Give me directions as to where you live and I will take you there."

"That'd be great! ...of course, only if I don't get in the way of anything..." Adrian looked at her shoes.

"Nonsense. I will be able to transport you back to your apartment in the most perfect way in which only a von Karma could provide." Franziska put on her best and cockiest smirk and led Adrian to her car.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Adrian's jaw nearly dropped when she saw Franziska's car. "W-Wow! This car...it...it..."

"Radiates perfection, does it not? A BMW 750Li Sedan, custom made for the best prosecutor in all of Germany." Adrian was in disbelief. She knew Franziska was rich, but...this was simply the most luxurious sedan she had ever seen. All of a sudden, she felt an empty, sad feeling coming over her. Adrian thought to herself; _This car just screams status...how will someone with a car like that ever want to fall in love with someone like me? _

Adrian did her best to conceal her sorrow when she gave Franziska directions to her house. When they pulled up to her apartment complex, the other vehicles in sight paled in comparison to Franziska's luxury sedan. Adrian mumbled her thanks and was reaching for the door handle when the young German prosecutor stopped her. "_Wait."_

Adrian shot a nervous glance back at von Karma. "Y-Yes...?"

"You seem troubled. What is the matter?" Adrian didn't know how to respond. She's never really seen Franziska ask anyone a question like that, nor did she imagine her doing so.

After a moment of silence, Adrian realized something. _Franziska wouldn't ever care about anyone else's feelings...or even her own. She probably feels them to be a waste of time. So she asked me...if something was wrong. I don't recall her ever treating the person closest to her, Miles Edgeworth, with anything but contempt. This must mean..._

A radiant glow overtook Adrian's entire persona. "Franziska, do you want to come in and watch a movie? I just got this great new movie I think you'd really enjoy seeing. Maybe I could pop us some popcorn! It could be a girl's night! It'd be fun!"

Franziska sat in silence, contemplating what she should do. _I can't turn down her invitation...she seems so happy, and I would crush that. I like seeing her like that. I'm unaware of the formalities of this so called "girl's night." It would be embarrassing for her to be aware of my lack of a perfect understanding of the situation._

"Fine." Franzika tried to seem unamused by the possibility of spending the rest of the evening with Adrian, but, she was secretly hoping it would turn out this way.

As they were taking the stairs up to the hallway her apartment was in, Franziska began to inquire information about this movie they were supposed to watch.

"It's a romantic comedy my friend Katelyn bought me for my birthday a couple weeks ago. I heard it's supposed to be really good." Franziska gripped tighter on her whip. _Katelyn...hmph! ...Ach! Stop it, you're being paranoid, Franziska! Get ahold of yourself!_

"...To be completely honest though, I'm a little jealous of Katelyn. She's got this boyfriend who she really seems to like...and he really seems to like her as well. She's the only friend I have...! Besides you, that is!" Franziska noticed Adrian shooting her a nervous smile, as if she finally figured out she was saying all the wrong things.

When they finally came to her apartment, Adrian struggled unlocking the door. She kept gazing back at Franziska nervously, as if she were the President. Franziska shot Adrian that cocky smile.

"Here. Let me help you with that." Adrian handed Franziska the key and unlocked the door in a single try. Adrian's face was more red than her younger brother's court wardrobe. Franziska smiled at her again, and said "Next time, be sure and insert the key the right way up." Adrian seemed embarrassed still. _I guess my way of joking is a bit too vague for her to understand right now._ Adrian followed Franziska into her own apartment, staring down at the floor until she shut the door behind her.

"Well, here it is! My humble abode!" Any sense of humiliation the petite blond woman had seemed to disappear once they set foot inside her small apartment.

"Hmph. It is no bragging matter when compared to the von Karma estate." Franziska was constantly reassuring herself; _Don't let your guard down. You need to be in control of every aspect of this evening. It needs to be perfect._

"Ah, well, you know, it gets me by. So, just make yourself at home, and I'll pop the popcorn, ok?" Adrian was gleaming and humming as she sort of skipped into the kitchen. Franziska sat on the couch, and examined her surroundings. She held her whip in her hand just in case something were to happen. She wasn't sure what to think, because she had only ever been in homes as unsophisticated as this one during investigations. _It's far from perfect, but I think I can make due as long as Adrian's here._ Franziska smiled at this thought.

Adrian came in with a big bowl of popcorn and a bottle of wine. This suprised Franziska. _Wine and popcorn? What a strange pairing...It's almost wrong._

However, as the movie played through, they felt like they fit together perfectly. Something as tasteful and classy as wine and something as common yet rare as popcorn seemed to fit together perfectly. However, the strange pairing hadn't been the best thing for Franziska that night.

Franziska had noticed Adrian had situated herself quite comfortobly, snuggling tight into her side, her legs curled up on the couch, and her head rested on Franziska's shoulder. The young German woman was uncomfortable with this at first, because she had never been that physically close with another person, but as the movie played on, she grew to enjoy the way Adrian had seated herself.

That's when it happened. It was the climactic scene of the movie, and both women were acting as if they were watching intently, but secretly they were only focused on each other. The sun had gone down and the only light in the room was coming from the tv. As if fate had brought them together, they reached into the bowl of popcorn at the same time, and there hands became intertwined. Both women jumped at first, but neither pulled away. They stopped watching the movie, and began staring into each others' eyes. As they drew nearer and nearer to each other's lips, their hearts began to race, and just had fate had intended, Franziska's phone rang, pulling them both back into reality.

Once Franziska saw the number, she became infuriated, and had it not been Adrian, she would have whipped the nearest person into dust, and then would've whipped the dust the person had left behind.

She picked up the phone. "SCRUFFY, YOU FOOL! WHAT COULD A FOOLISH FOOL OF A FOOLISH DETECTIVE FOOLISHLY NEED AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT!?" Adrian flinched everytime the word fool was said. It seemed like she said it with an extra bit of anger each time she repeated it.

"S-s-s-s-s-s-..."

"You're a very lucky man, detective, because if I was with you right now, you would have whipped to the bone. Now stop your cowering and get to the point."

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-..."

"GET ON WITH IT, YOU DAMN FOOL!"

Gumshoe clearly let out a light whimper. "Y-yes s-sir. There was a murder, s-sir. The v-v-v-..."

"SCRUFFY!"

"Victim's name was Tobias Koffi. He owned a coffee shop near the Prosecutor's office, which was also the scene of the crime. The cause of death was a fatal gunshot wound. The murder weapon has been found, and we weren't able to lift any prints, but the suspect is his wife, Greta Koffi." _If only this fool can be this useful all the time...albeit he's still incompetent._

"I'll be there right away."

Franziska looked back at Adrian and saw a puppy dog-like face, but she had to do her job, no matter what. "Sorry Adrian. I must be going now. I hope to see you again soon." Before Adrian could respond, Franziska had already left.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

When Franziska arrived at the coffee shop, it was not the same place it had been just a few hours before. That home-like comfort had left, and what used to be a relaxing spot to take a break had become a tense, unorganized mess.

When she entered the crime scene, Detective Gumshoe had approached her in order to further brief her on the crime, but Franziska was too lost in thought to notice. _Out of all the times for a murder to happen, why did it have to be now?_ She was thinking of the comfort of Adrian's couch, the young blonde woman snuggled against her side, holding on tight, and Franziska would just be laying back with her arm around Adrian's opposite shoulder..._how perfect._

"...and that's what we think happened, sir." Gumshoe flinched as he thought he was about to get lashed again, but it didn't even seem like Ms. von Karma had noticed he was there.

"Um-Um...sir?" Gumshoe sheepishly asked. This broke Franziska's daydreaming, which infuriated the 19-year old prodigy.

"What do you want, you fool!? Can't you see I'm busy analyzing the scene of the crime?"

Gumshoe seemed to turn pale as he spoke, knowing the consequences of when the words came out of his mouth. "Um-um-..sir? We're not at the..."

_CRACK!_ Franziska had felt like less of a fool when she saw Scruffy rubbing his wound on the front of his bicep. _If I had let those last words come out of his foolish mouth, I would have looked like the biggest fool in the state, as I would have lost a battle of wits with __HIM__..._

Only two men had been able to defeat her in a battle of wits, Mr. Phoenix Wright and her younger brother, Miles Edgeworth...she was not about to add the scruffy detective to that list.

She and Gumshoe entered the scene of the shooting, the alley behind the store, and Franziska quickly noticed a folded piece of paper sticking out of the victim's apron pocket that the detectives failed to notice. "What is this?" Franziska inquired. Gumshoe was distracted by a butterfly.

"Um...what? I don't see anything." _Arghh...the fool._

She was about to reach down and pull it out of the pocket to show the always-confused detective, but she stopped just short of the piece of paper. _Just a few hours ago, he had been alive, serving Adrian and I our coffee..._

Franziska quickly tried to forget about what had happened a few hours earlier for the sake of remaining professional. She pulled the document out of the apron and unfolded it. It was a letter written to thevictim, but it beared no one's signature.

_Mr. Koffi, _

_ The time has come for you to pay up what we lent you. The figure now sits at around $250,000. If you fail to return what we so courteously let you borrow, then we will seek other means of retribution._

Franziska quickly deducted that Mr. Koffi had borrowed money from the local mafia, but she couldn't think of a reason for him doing so. She knew his cafe had been open for longer than she's been alive, and was quite successful as well. She further examined the victim's body to find a picture of his family, and another of what appeared to be his grandson. The back of the photo appeared to have the words "Jason, age 5." _This boy cannot be older than 2 or 3, and he seems unable to walk. _Indeed, the boy still looked like an infant and had no hair. Franziska stored these pieces of evidence away, hoping the scruffy detective wouldn't notice. Unsurprisingly, he appeared pre-occupied with what he was finding to be thrown away in the dumpster behind the coffee shop.

"Hey, sir! Look at this! It's amazing what some people throw away!" The smiling detective triumphantly held a broken broomstick up in the air.

_Fool. _Franziska felt the urge to send her trusty whip flying, but decided it was better for him not to know she was concealing evidence, so remained content with his ignorance, at least for now.

She asked another detective from the precinct for possible witnesses, deciding it was better to leave the foolish detective to digging in the trash for treasure.

"Only one, came down here quite often, and claimed to have left something behind, and he wanted to retrieve before closing. His name is Santino Lombardi." _Closing time is at 5 o'clock! The murder happened between 10:30 and 11 pm! I best consult with this witness, or he might give the defense a lot to work with._

"I need to speak with this witness immediately. I have a few things I must to discuss with him."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but he left rather quickly. I do not know of his whereabouts at the moment. It will have to wait until tommorow." _Arghh...without being able to hear what things he has to say, I have no further reason for continuing my investigation at the moment. This will have to wait._

"I will be heading home, detective. I believe I have gotten all I can get from this investigation tonight." Franziska turned before hearing his response and walked to her car.

As she buckled her seatbelt, she felt she needed to call Adrian, but as she went to dial, she noticed it was past midnight. _I'll just call her tommorow, _Franziska thought as she put the keys into the ignition and started her BMW. She knew she wouldn't get any sleep tonight, partly because of the murder, but mostly because as soon as she laid down in her bed, she knew the thoughts of nearly kissing Adrian tonight would just take over her thoughts.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Adrian couldn't stop wondering what would've happened if she and Franziska had actually kissed last night. _I just know she was going to kiss me! I just know it! What would've happened next though...?_

Before she could ponder the possibilities, her phone rang. She looked at the caller id, and her heart jumped. Franziska was finally calling her.

"Adrian? This is Franziska."

Adrian grinned like a small child. It wasn't that formal greeting she always answered with, but it was better, because it had a sense of caring to it.

"Hey! How are you?"

"Are you busy at the moment?" Adrian had to think! She hadn't had any work come her way since her last job promoting the Treasures of Kurain exhibit it the Lordly Tailor in Kurain Village, but she didn't want to seem like she had no social life, either...

"Y-y-No! Of course not! Why do you ask?" _Stupid stupid stupid._

"I need to talk to you about last night...it's important. Do you want to meet me for lunch?"

_Oh god. I don't know how this will turn out. _"Y-yeah...I mean, of course! Where at?"

"A colleague told me about a great Sushi bar downtown. 'Sushi Fusion' I believe it is called. If you need me to, I will pay your bus fare."

Adrian found herself blushing at the offer. "Oh, no, that won't be necessary. When's your lunch break?"

"12 o'clock. And Adrian?"

"Yes?"

"Don't be late this time."

Franziska hung up the phone, and immediately after doing so, she felt like she had been rude not to say goodbye.

She turned her rolling chair around to find her younger brother, esteemed prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, sitting in the chair across from her desk, generally reserved for detectives and the like.

Franziska quickly furrowed her brow. "How long were you here?"

Edgeworth confidently replied "Just long enough to know you have a lunch date, Franziska." He then promptly shot her a smug expression, "Although, it is common courtesy to say goodbye to the person you're taking out for lunch."

Franziska started pulling her whip. _How dare he talk to me like that!_

As if something had clicked, Edgeworth's face went from cocky to serious. "I hear that you're staying for good this time, or at least until you defeat Phoenix Wright. Is this true?"

"Yes, it most certainly is." Franziska then shot Edgeworth a smug look of her own. "And if I have to oppurtunity to defeat you, younger brother, as well, I'm going to do exactly that."

He seemed to look down on her with his body language. "Franziska, I don't know where you learned your number skills, but I do believe I'm 25, and you're only 19. Tell me, which one of us is older sibling and which one of us is the younger sibling here? After all, you did become a prosecutor at the age of 13, didn't you?"

Franziska felt the fury building up inside of her. "We're not even siblings, Miles Edgeworth! My father, the legendary Manfred von Karma, took you into his home to teach you the von Karma way! And how do you repay him? By dragging our name through the mud with your imperfect 'truth' theory! You bring shame to myself and every other worthy prosecutor in these courts!"

Edgeworth was visibly hurt at this statement. "You and I both know what kind of man your father was, Franziska. Look at where he is now. Keep that in mind, and you might find out what it really means to be a prosecutor."

_..._Franziska was speechless. She didn't want to admit it, but he was right...

"I request you leave this instant."

"As you wish, Franziska." He gave her a look that sent chills down her spine, and not in a good way. "I thought it would be beneficial for you to know that you'll be facing Wright in court again, however. I hope you are prepared for his usual routine." With this statement, Edgeworth got up and started towards the door.

Franziska felt a strong urge come over her entire being. "Miles, wait!" Edgeworth turned and looked back at her.

"Yes, Franziska?"

Franziska knew she would appear weak if she said this, but she needed to know. "...Do you think that Greta Koffi is guilty?"

Edgeworth gave her another one of those spine-tingling looks. "That's for you to find out. Now, I believe it is time for your lunch break." He turned and walked out the door.

Franziska thought to herself; _At least I'll get to see Adrian at lunch._

Adrian did everything in her power to make sure she was not late or early, but promptly there at 12 o'clock.

She walked in to find Franziska seated with a menu in front of her and her arms folded. She didn't see a hostess, so she just walked over to Franziska's table and took a seat.

The young German woman just looked up with a smile; a very warm one, considering who it was coming from. "I see you made it on time."

Adrian gleamed at would could be taken as an insult or a compliment. "I did everything in my power to make sure I wasn't late this time."

Adrian saw Franziska giving her a nervous glare. _I've never seen her nervous before...she's always so confident and strong willed._ _What does this even mean?_

Adrian began taking in info on her surroundings to take her mind off of what could possibly happen; the restuarant had sort of a classic oriental feel to it. It seemed to be very high end, especially for a sushi joint.

Franziska finally spoke up: "A-about last night...we nearly kissed, did we not?"

Adrian didn't know what to make of this. "Y-yes. I believe we nearly did."

Franziska started staring at the table in front of her. "Adrian...we're friends, aren't we? I..don't have any other friends, and no one else I talk to besides Miles." Adrian could sense it was hard for her to be this open about her feelings; "But...I've never...been romantically involved before...not even with a man...I'm not aware of the formalities of these kinds of relationships..."

Adrian swallowed nervously, as she thought she knew where Franziska was going, and it was nowhere good.

"...but...I know I want to have that kind of relationship with you...if you'll have me..." She looked up from the table for a moment and Adrian saw how red her face was. Franziska probably didn't know how much joy she was feeling at the moment.

"Y-yes...I would like that, too..." She slowly leaned towards Franziska. Although there were no percussion instruments in the restuarant, she felt as if there were a drumroll leading up to this moment. She put her left hand under Franziska's chin and lifted her head up from staring at the table; Their eyes met for a moment, and they passionately kissed for the first time. Although Franziska had never kissed anyone yet, it was not Adrian's first kiss, not even with another woman...but she didn't think about that. She thought about how soft Franziska's lips were; how innocent they felt. _I've never had a kiss like this in my entire life. Not even with...Celeste._

Both women had felt as if the whole world froze around them for a moment. During this moment, new feelings entered Franziska; ones she had never felt before. She felt...loved. As these new feelings entered Franziska, old ones left Adrian. _Celeste who?_

All of a sudden, they stopped. Adrian had realized Franziska would need a lot of guiding on this whole relationship thing, and she would have to take the reigns for a while, until Franziska felt comfortable being in a relationship like this. "So, do you want to come over and watch another movie tonight after you get off of work? There's a great rental store over by my apartment complex. Maybe we can stop by and pick out something together."

"Y-yes. That would be acceptable." Franziska was still reeling over what she had felt during that kiss. She had never felt something so powerful in her life...it was if she had gained a whole new perspective on the word _perfection..._


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

When Franziska walked back into the prosecutor's office, everyone who saw her was caught off guard by her beaming smile. Even when she sat down at her desk to do paperwork on the murder of Tobias Koffi, which is normally considered a tedious task, she was happily humming along to one of Bach's overtures. When Edgeworth noticed this behavior, he decided it was safe to talk to her again.

He stood in the doorway; Franziska normally kept the door to her office closed, but, under the circumstances, she had kept it open this time.

He cleared his throat to grab her attention. "Generally, when I see Franziska von Karma the day before a trial, she's not humming when she's doing paperwork. To be honest, I don't see Franziska von Karma humming, period. I take it your date went well then?"

Any hint of anger she had felt before her date with Adrian had vanished. "Yes, it went quite well. We're renting a movie and watching it together tonight. "

Edgeworth seemed serious. "You really should be focused on your trial; However, seeing as you're an adult now, I won't interfere with your decisions. Who is this man that you are seeing, anyway?"

Franziska winced at the word _man, _and stood up out of her chair rather quickly. "I don't think that is any of your concern, Miles Edgeworth." She motioned towards the door. "Now, I have to meet with a witness to my current case. He should be here any minute. I insist you leave my office at once."

Edgeworth caught on to her unwillingness to comply almost immediately, and decided it to be best if he were to leave at once. "Fine. I'll be seeing you around, Franziska." With that, he turned on his heel and left the office for the second time that day.

Franziska breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back down. _I know if he were to inquire any more information about my romantic life, he would have pieced everything together flawlessly. Gahh! Why did he have to hear my phone call earlier? Things would be so much more simple if he were to mind his own business. _

She was tugging on her whip with each passing thought, until a slow sounding, Brooklyn-esque accent broke her concentration.

"Ms. von Karma? I heard youse wanna speak to me. Is it 'bout dat murder I saw? ...Cuz I'll tell youse anything youse wanna hear, got me? I can't keep my mouth shut 'round such a beautiful gurl such as youseself."

_CRACK! This foolish fool of a witness will be very difficult for me to deal with, as I can't stand the likes of fools such as this foolish fool, especially when their foolishness is brought into court._

"Ack! What was dat about! Youse a crazy broad, ain't ya? ...that's ok. I kinda like them crazy broads."

_CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! _"Don't be a fool, Mr. Lombardi! Your testimony is vital to me getting my guilty verdict! Now, sit down and let me talk to you about what you're going to say in court...and don't call me a 'broad' ever again, or you shall taste the fury of a von Karma!"

Lombardi took a seat with a hurt puppy dog look on his face that was extremely similar to Gumshoe's when she did this to him. _Great...this man and Scruffy testifying on the same case. _An involuntary scowl appeared on Franziska's face.

Lombardi jumped as soon as he saw the facial expression she wore. "W-whoa! Youse ain't gonna whip me again, is youse? I don't like that look on youse face."

_CRACK! _"Just get on with what you're going to tell the court tomorrow!"

"Geez, geez, alright! Sheesh." This might have been the only man to be able to infuriate Franziska as much as Scruffy and that foolish friend of Edgeworth and Wright who claims to be an artist did.

"...and that's what I seen, capeche?" Franziska mulled over what she had heard for a moment. _Phoenix Wright will tear apart this testimony in a heartbeat. I better get him to thinking like a competent witness, and fast. _Immediately after thinking that, she thought about the difficulty of getting this foolishly man to appear competent under normal circumstances, let alone in a court of law.

After she plugged up a few holes in Mr. Lombardi's testimony, he tried hitting on her, but only to get lashed with her whip nonstop until he was out the door. _Thank god,_ Franziska thought, _that unbearably incompetent fool is gone, and my working day is over. _As she was getting up to leave the office and head over to Adrian's apartment, something fell out of her bag, but she was in too much of a hurry to notice.

When Franziska knocked on the door, she heard Adrian yell "Coming!" and what seemed to be things falling over and crashing to the ground. _She's so clumsy...it's kinda cute._ She couldn't help but form a small smile at this thought.

Adrian walked out the door, purse in tow, and asked Franziska if she was ready to go pick out a movie. As predicted, she replied with "A von Karma is always ready."

As they arrived at the video store, a blindingly bright powder blue and yellow neon sign reading "Video Magic" and depicting a DVD being pulled out of a magician's hat reflected off the lens in Adrian's glasses. "Well, this is it! I had my first job here. The people who own it are quite nice, they might even give us a discount!"

"Hmph. We will see." Franziska parked towards the back of the parking lot in front of the building, and they both exited the car and started towards the building.

As Franziska was making her way towards the entrance, she felt something grab her hand. She looked to see what it was, and her heart jumped when she saw it was Adrian's hand, holding on tight. _Achtung! I've never done this before! _She took a deep breath to calm herself down. _Alright, just go with_ _it. This is what normal couples do, is it not?_

Adrian stopped at the door and loosened her grip on Franziska's hand."Is something wrong, Franziska? If you're not ready for this to be public..."

Franziska stopped her immediately. "No. I'm fine. It's fine. Shall we go select our movie for tonight?"

Adrian gave her a warm, inviting smile, "Yes, let's." She leaned in and gave Franziska a kiss on the cheek.

However, as soon as they walked in the door, they saw the man behind the register giving them a cold, icy stare. He had messy and unkempt features, and his hair growing on top of his head seemed to point out at every possible direction. He had a bit of dirt below his right eye, and his eyes seemed to be pitch black. He kept staring at the young couple, making them both a bit nervous.

"Come on, Franziska. I think there's some movies we'd both enjoy over here, on this aisle." Adrian led Franziska to where they'd both be out of that man's sight.

Franziska couldn't help but wonder why he would glare at them like that. She thought it would be better just to let it slide. After they picked out their movie for the evening, they made their way back up to the checkout register.

Adrian placed the movie on the counter and pulled her membership card out of her purse. The man looked at the card and gave it back, and both of those beady eyes remained fixtated on them as he scanned the DVD case.

"That'll be 5.99, ma'am." His voice sounded like it came from the backwoods of Arkansas, and had a tone of nothing but disapproval to it.

"Thank you." Adrian grabbed their DVD, and as they both made their way towards the exit, he spoke up again, stopping them both in their tracks.

"Excuse me, ma'am. I'm a man of the lord. Born a raised in a good, Christian enviroment down in North Texas. And let me tell the both of you something..." He flashed a golden cross necklace that was hidden beneath his powder blue employee's polo. "The good lord up in heaven is watching y'all as we speak, and he is absolutely sick with the likes of y'all, disobeying his word and all." He put the cross back under his shirt. "And when my lord and savior is sickened by people like you, so am I. Don't expect to be seviced in this store ever again, so don't even bother showing your sinful faces around establishment again, ya hear? This is a family-appropriate business, so take your blasphemous smoot out of this store, and never come back."

Both the women were visibly hurt by this man's cold words, and Franziska started to stand up to him, but Adrian grabbed her hand and led her out of the store, in tears.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

As both women became situated in the car, there was a feeling of tension in the air. The light from the sign as they pulled out of the parking lot showed the tears in Adrian's eyes. When they pulled into the parking lot at Adrian's apartment complex, Franziska reached over a wiped some of the tears away from her face. _I wish I could've said something to that fool of a human being while I was in the store. He's not going to get away with making Adrian cry like this. I won't allow it. I must stay strong right now...for Adrian's sake._

Adrian remained staring out the window as she told Franziska about how that was normal.

"You know...I've dated another woman before...and we met people like that...bigots. Whether it was God, or it was inappropriate for children, or just plain gross, people always stared or said hateful things when we were together in public..." She turned her attention to a completely attentive Franziska von Karma. "If we're going to continue this relationship, Franziska, I need to know that you won't care about those people...this will happen again...trust me." Tears rapidly began falling from Adrian's eyes. She struggled to form the next words that came from her mouth; "...and there's nothing you can do about those kinds of people, either...no matter how many times you lash at them with your whip, no matter how good your case is against them...they will always say that it's wrong...Franziska, I need to be assured that you will just ignore their words and stay with me...no matter what."

Franziska had no experience in a situation like this. She never listened to other people's feelings, and she was always annoyed at the sight of another person crying, but this time, it was different...

"You have my word. I swear on the von Karma family name that I will never leave you because of another person's disapproval."

Adrian jumped out of her seatbelt over to the driver's side of the car and hugged Franziska, and began crying on her shoulder, leaving a wet spot on the left side of her work attire.

Franziska was suprised and threw her hands in the air. _I...I...what do I do!?_

Adrian didn't notice her shock. "...you...you don't know how much that means to me. Thank you..." Adrian put her face back into Franziska's shoulder. "No matter how many times that happens, it always seems to hurt as if it never happened before.*sniffle* "

Franziska just did what seemed appropriate at the time. She put her arms around Adrian and slowly and softly began patting her on the back as Adrian continued crying into her shoulder.

After a few minutes of this, Adrian felt a little better, but still seemed hurt.

"Come on, I heard this movie is really good!" She held the DVD up for Franziska to see. "And I know the actor who stars in it from my days as a manager. His face fits the role of the crazed horror movie villian perfectly!"

Franziska gave her a warm and sincere smile. "Yes, let's."

Franziska read the cover of the case as they made their way to Adrian's apartment. _Blood and Guts, 2: The Asylum. Starring Will Powers. A horror film, eh? I wonder what she found so appealing about this. It looks really cheesy to me._

Adrian shoved her key into the lock of her apartment door, and the turned the handle.

"Well, here we are! Make yourself at home! I'm out of popcorn, so will pretzels do?"

"Yes, that's perfectly acceptable." Franziska took a seat on the couch. Until she sat on this couch last night, she had only sat on fine leather couches, never one made of cheap fabric like this. When she realized it was fine only because of Adrian, she began to see something she hadn't seen yet.

_The only reason I find all of these imperfections acceptable is because of Adrian. If it were anyone else, I wouldn't accept such shoddy arrangements. I also get embarrassed and weak around her, and I wouldn't let that happen around anyone else. But that's...perfectly fine. _

Adrian brought a large bowl of pretzels in and seated herself next to Franziska, placing the bowl of snacks on the coffee table in front of them. As the movie played through, they found themselves in the same position as they were in last night, with Adrian snuggled close to Franziska, her head resting on the young prosecutor's shoulder, and Franziska's arm around Adrian's waist, pulling her closer with each breath.

After they shared laughter at some of the cheesy dialogue and poor special effects, Adrian fell asleep on Franziska's shoulder.

When Franziska noticed this, she stared deeply into the woman as she slept, rested against her side. _She looks so peaceful..._

After the movie, Franziska helped Adrian into her bed and kissed her on the forehead as she laid down in the bed. Adrian drowsily mumbled "Goodnight, Franziska."

"Guten Nacht, mein liebe."

And with that, Franziska started her way home in order to rest herself for her court battle the next morning against the man who took her papa away forever.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Franziska was sitting in the lobby, going over the all the information and evidence she had gathered for her case against the defendant, but more importantly, against Phoenix Wright.

Because of this man, her father, Manfred von Karma, not only suffered his first defeat in over 40 years as a prosecutor, but his life, as well.

Because of this fool of a defense attorney, he was convicted and executed for the murder of Gregory Edgeworth, almost 15 years after his death. Oh, any case against this man was very serious and personal for her. But, there were other reasons for her constant craving for defeating this man in court as well.

This defense attorney was also the only one to defeat her younger brother, Miles Edgeworth, the man who's huge shadow she's been having to live in for much, much too long now.

And this time, there will be no escape for neither the defendant nor Phoenix Wright.

She felt someone approaching her, but she was much too busy planning her case to give them a second of her time.

"Franziska..." _That voice. It could only be one person. Why does HE have to be here?_

She looked up to find Miles Edgeworth standing before her. "I'm going to be in the gallery to see how this case unfolds. I want to wish you the best of luck before you appear before the judge."

She shot him an icy, almost demonic glare. "I'm sure your going to be rooting for your foolish friend of a defense attorney." After this she looked back down into her notes for the trial. _Victim, Tobias Koffi, 64, was murdered by a single gunshot wound to the head at point blank range... _Edgeworth's hand gently pushed the papers down from her face to receive her attention once more.

He'd been keeping an almost emotionless expression throughout the conversation. "I looked into this case personally, and I have no doubt the truth will be revealed. I'm not rooting for you nor Wright; I'm rooting for the truth."

_CRACK!_ Edgeworth seemed unphased by the lash of her whip. He'd lived with her long enough to grow used to it. "Once again, good luck."

"Hmph." He walked away and she looked back down into her files on the case. _Only two were at the scene of the crime; The defendant, Greta Koffi, 62, and Santino Lombardi, 25, recently moved to the area from Brooklyn, claims to have heard yelling and then a gunshot while he was searching for his wallet..._Franziska felt someone else approaching; only this time, she knew who it was, and looked up from her notes to greet her.

"Hi, Franziska!"

Franziska decided to get right to the point. "Adrian...why are you here?" _I don't need any distractions...and this is a distraction I simply can't ignore..._

She seemed unaware of the context of Franziska's message. "I came to root for you, of course! I'm going to be sitting in the gallery. I wanted to wish you luck before your case."

Franziska smirked at this comment. "A member of the house of von Karma doesn't need luck."

Adrian still seemed aloof to the hints Franziska was giving her; "Well, in any case, a little luck can't hurt anything, right? I thought that this would help a little bit, too." She leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll be rooting for you! See you when you're done, ok?"

"See you then." With this, She went back to reading her notes. _He claimed the noises came from the alley behind the restuarant, and the voices belonged to an older woman and an older man..._

"Ms. von Karma? Your honor is ready for you now." _Damn! _She wasn't able to go over all her notes once more before the case...luckily, she had done a substantial amount of studying before today's trial, anyway.

The judge approached his bench, signaling the beginning of the trial. "Ah, yes. Here today we have the trial of Koffi, accused of the murder of her husband, Mr. Tobias Koffi...blah blah blah...we all know the formalities, and my grandson is having his 8th birthday party in a few hours..." *YAWWWNNNN* "And I'm rather pooped as well..." He dozed off into a slumber.

_CRACK!_ "O-Oh! Yes. Is the defense ready?"

The spiky-haired defense attorney promptly responded with a rather confident "The defense is ready, your honor." _Phoenix Wright...at last we meet in the courtroom again._

The judge dozed off into yet another nap. _CRACK! _"O-oh! Sorry, Ms. von Karma. Is the prosecution ready?"

"The prosecution is ready, your honor." _Bumbling old fool._

"Yes, well..if the prosecution would present their opening statement"

"Gladly." Franziska looked at Adrian in the gallery, who responded with an excited, yet soft clapping and a wide grin.

"The victim, Mr. Tobias Koffi, owned and operated a small coffee shop with his wife, the defendant, Mrs. Greta Koffi. We believe the motive stemmed from an argument heard by a witness, which I have prepared to testify in front of us today." _No way Wright will escape from my clutches today..._

"Y-yes, well, that does seem like a good motive to kill. I only have one question for the prosecution."

Franziska didn't know how to react; "Yes, your honor?"

"What is the name of this coffee shop? Some coffee sounds rather delightful right now..."

_ CRACK! _"Y-yes, sorry. Shall the prosecution call a witness to the stand?"

"Yes. The prosecution calls the detective in charge of the scene, Dick Gumshoe, to the stand."

The always-confused detective approached the stand in his usual manner.

"Name and Occupation."

The detective seemed distracted, as expected. _CRACK! And one for good measure...CRACK!_

"Ow-ow! Name's Dick Gymshoes! Occupation, Detective homicide!" _Fool. Can't even get his name and occupation right._

_ CRACK! _"I have no time for your foolishness, Scruffy. Proceed with your testimony."

"Yes, sir! The victim was found dead between 10:30 and 11 pm, from a single gunshot wound to the right temple. The murder weapon we believe the defendant used was found at the scene of the crime."

Wright piped up. "HOLD IT!" _Damn you, you foolish fool of a foolish detective._

"There's something wrong with claiming that the defendant used this weapon. There were no fingerprints found on it! We can't be certain my client fired the weapon unless we have evidence proving so!"

Gumshoe meekly replied "Yeah...well..."

_This case is already in his favor..._ Franziska glanced at Adrian once more, who waved back with that same grin from earlier. _Wait..._

"Mr. Koffi worked the register and waited tables, correct? If so, they needed someone to work the kitchen and clean the dishes, and there is only one other employee who worked at the restuarant, Mrs. Greta Koffi! And by law, she's required to wear gloves when doing so! So she very well could've had been wearing her work gloves at the time of the murder!" Franziska did her usual bow after stating her claim.

She saw Phoenix start to sweat, and his confidence seemed to be leaving him with each drop. _He's backed into a corner now...exactly where I want him._

The judge spoke up. "The prosecution has a very valid point. Can you refute this claim, Mr. Wright?"

_CRACK! _"Ow!"

Confidence seemed to be radiating from the young prodigy; "Of course he cannot! It's irrefutable! Everything a von Karma does in a court of law is nothing short of perfect."

All of a sudden, the defense attorney seemed to regain all of his composure. "Actually, I can refute your claim, Ms. von Karma. Their business closes at 5 pm, and the murder happened between 10:30 and 11 pm. So you're claiming she was wearing her work gloves for 6 hours after the restuarant closed?"

_Dammit! _Once again, the tide has shifted against Ms. von Karma. _How do I counter that...?_

The old judge nodded. "Yes, well, I do see the flaw in the prosecution's line of logic. Any objections, Ms. von Karma?"

"...the prosecution wishes to call another witness to the stand, Mr. Santino Lombardi." _CRACK!_ "Scruffy! I suggest you go dig for coins in your sofa, because you'll need every penny you can get, considering how your salary is going to be cut by a substantial amount, if I have any say in your next negotiation meeting. You're hereby excused from the witness stand."

Gumshoe appeared if he was going to start bawling in front of the entire court. "But...but...not my salary, sir! I won't even be able to afford instant noodles and toilet paper anymore! WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" As if someone released a flood gate, Gumshoe let the waterworks fly.

_CRACK!___"You are..."_ CRACK! _"Excused from..."_ CRACK! CRACK! _"The witness stand..."_ CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! _"You fool!" Franziska turned her attention to the bailiff. "BAILIFF! See to it this pathetically foolish detective leaves the courthouse, immediately." Out of fear of facing the fury of her whip like the detective did, he did as she ordered without hesitation.

After seeing Gumshoe escorted out of the courtroom and hearing his unintelligible sobbing/talking, the court gallery was all riled up. The judge promptly banged his gavel. "ORDER! ORDER, I SAY!"

_This trial is going nothing as I planned it to be..._ With a hint of frustration, Franziska slammed her fist on the prosecution's bench. "Once again, the prosecution calls Mr. Santino Lombardi to the stand."

Mr. Lombardi stumbled on his way up to the stand. "Witness, name and occupation."

"Name's Santino Lombardi, and I'm uhhh... I'm a witness! Yeah!" _Oh god..._

_ CRACK!_ "Mr. Lombardi! I am in no mood for a foolish testimony. Please state your occupation."

"O-ow! Alright! Geez! I work for a family operated-business, capeche? I don't think youse guys need to hear no more 'bout dat."

The judge nodded in understanding. "Oh, I see...well, proceed with your testimony."

As Santino went on, he actually said everything Franziska told him to say. Wright was sweating with every word, knowing that this testimony was completely bulletproof. A smirk came to Franziska's face after the testimony. _Hmph. The tides have turned once again, Mr. Wright...and I assure you, they won't be turning again. _

The judge seem shocked. "Well, I do believe I've heard all I need to hear, and I am completely prepared to hand down my verdict. Any objections, Mr. Wright?"

He paused for a moment. "...N-no, your honor."

Santino piped up. "Hey, am I done here? I'm ready to go get a bite to eat. I'm starvin' over here..." He looked at Franziska. "Hey...maybe youse and me can go on a date tonight. Of course, youse is gonna have to pay..." _CRACK!_

"Please refrain from flirting with me, and I have no objection to you leaving." Not even this fool could get to her right now. _I did it...I finally defeated him..._

As the Brooklynite made his way down from the witness stand, the judge was starting to hand down his verdict. Before he was able to do so, however, Phoenix Wright let out the loudest objection ever heard by anyone in the courtroom.

This caused Santino to stumble out of shock, and a piece of paper fell out of his coat pocket after he hit the ground. Wright made his way over to where the witness lay.

"I couldn't help but notice this suspicious looking piece of paper sticking out of your pocket. Mind if I take a look?"

All of a sudden, Santino got all jumpy. "Y-yeah I mind! That's my personal business! Youse is...um...evading my privacy! Y-yeah!"

Franziska was thinking to herself quietly._ What could that possibly be? I know I have everything right here in my evidence bag... _To be sure, she looked through it one more time, knowing all attention was on Mr. Wright and her witness. "...!"

Wright smirked. "What is it, Franziska? Do you know what this piece of paper is?"

Franziska slammed her fist on the table once more, however more out of nervousness than frustration this time. _He_ _took that out of my office...it must have fallen out of my bag somehow... he's the killer...and Greta Koffi is...innocent. She could spend the rest of her life in prison, with everyone thinking she killed the man she had been married to for 40 years..._ After thinking this, she thought about how she would feel if everyone thought she killed Adrian. She looked over at Ms. Andrews and gave her a warm smile.

After this realization, everything she had ever been taught by her father seemed meaningless to her.

"I have an idea, and it could be important to this case. I request the piece of paper be read aloud." No one in the courtroom knew what to make of what Ms. von Karma had said...except for Miles Edgeworth, of course.

"WH-WHAAAAAT!?" Santino seemed as if he didn't know what to think of this.

The judge nodded. "Mr. Wright, you have my permission to read the paper out loud to the court."

"_Mr. Koffi, _

_ The time has come for you to pay up what we lent you. The figure now sits at around $250,000. If you fail to return what we so courteously let you borrow, then we will seek other means of retribution. _It doesn't have a signature on it."

The judge seemed excited. "This is like one of those Perry Mason books I read in my youth! Ms. von Karma! Would you mind having a handwriting analysis performed on this note?"

Franziska nodded. "...Not at all."

"Yes, well, let's get to it! I'm ready for this! ...WOOOO!"

Everyone in the court stared at the judge in silence (Except for Santino, who was shaking in his boots.) as his face turned red. "Y-yes...well..."

30 minutes later, a detective returned to the courtroom with the results of the handwriting analysis. "The handwriting on the note found in Mr. Lombardi's pocket belongs to Mr. Lombardi himself."

The judge piped up. "Ah! It seems as if this entire case has been turned on his head. Now, I'm going to declare a 30 minute recess. I think it's going to build up the suspense, don't you?" _CRACK! _

"A-ah, yes...sorry about that...anywhom..." The judge banged his gavel, signaling the beginning of the recess.

Franziska watched Adrian as she walked back into the lobby, and before going out the doors, she looked at Franziska and blew her kiss, followed by a thumbs up. Franziska just gave her a small, yet warm and sincere smile.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

After everyone had left the courtroom, Franziska hadn't left the prosecutor's bench. _...This is not the von Karma way...everything I have ever been...I have ever known...Is being proven to be...wrong. I need Adrian. I just want her here right now. _

Franziska had known the feeling of being alone for as long as she could remember, but this was as lonely as she had ever been.

After what seemed like years of silence that was only being interrupted by her thoughts, she heard the gavel slam.

She looked up to see the judge munching hapharzadly on some popcorn "Oh boy! Court is in session! I can't wait to see how this is going to turn out! I love drama. It's why I chose this career. It's like watching a soap opera play out before your very eyes..." _CRACK! CRACK!_

The remainder of the case played out, and it almost seemed as if Franziska was working with the one man whose defeat used to mean everything to her..._used to._

Santino was reduced into a puddle of a man, and completely broke down, and not only confessed to the murder of Tobias Koffi, but he also told all of the Stringoli family business details, almost without having been provoked. None of the conclusions to her previous trials had felt this..._perfect._

She made her way out of the courthouse in a hurry; She didn't want to be there when Edgeworth and Wright tried talking to her about what happened in the trial. She honestly didn't know what had come over her; she just had a feeling she had done the right thing. She had made her way to her prized BMW, quickly opened the door, sat in the driver's seat, slammed the door shut, and banged her head against the steering wheel. Was what Edgeworth had been telling her recently been right? She didn't know anymore. What she did know is that her father would've disowned her because of her tactics in the courthouse today. She quietly mumbled to herself "But look where his way of prosecuting led him to..." She jumped as she heard a knock on her windshield. _Adrian._

Franziska jumped out of the car as quickly as she could and grabbed on to the small blonde woman tight; Warm tears began rolling out of Franziska's eyes. Adrian began slowly swaying as she held Franziska in her arms; she may not have been aware of everything that was going through Franziska's mind right at that moment, but she knew she cared. Franziska pulled away.

"Adrian...I need you to stay with me tonight...I've never felt so..." She couldn't get the last word out of her mouth, so she just buried her face back into Adrian's shoulder. _Everything I am is now nothing; and everything I want to be is against everything I am. _Immediately after thinking this, Franziska let out a wail. She didn't know Adrian had helped her into the passenger's seat of the car and was driving around until she could get directions out of the usually rough woman, nor did she see that Adrian was driving her third most prized possesion (behind only her prosecutor's badge and her whip, of course.) that she under NO circumstances let anyone drive EVER; she just knew that with this woman by her side, everything would be alright, and that's all that mattered to her at the moment.

Adrian was finally able to get directions from Franziska to the von Karma manor; she had to drive way out into the countryside, where all you could see were green pastures and blue skies. _Wow..._ Adrian couldn't help but be pleasantly suprised by the quaint and friendly beauty this scene had offered; She had never been out of a big city into a small place like this. Franziska had long since fallen asleep against the passenger window, as she was all cried out for the day. _It's cute...she's like a little girl again. _Adrian didn't think about how she had never seen Franziska this vunerable before, only about how peaceful she looked; _She must've had a really rough time in there today. I didn't notice anything was wrong with her during the trial..._ She turned into a long and winding driveway leading to a house that was surrounded by seemingly endless fenceline; The path to the house itself was surrounded by numerous evergreen trees, and as she got closer, there seemed to be a small, yet well-kept flower garden beside the front porch. She pulled Franziska's car into the carport. _This house is so...majestic. It's like she lives in a work of art!_

When she got took the car out of gear after pulling Franziska's car into the carport, Franziska drowisly mumbled "Are we home?"

"Yes, Franziska, we're home."

"O-ok."

Adrian got out to see a breathtaking flower arrangement with a fountain spraying water out of it placed in the center. She saw 4 colors of roses, red, yellow, white, and what seemed to be a dark purple, divided into their own sections of the backyard. She stared at this breath-taking scene for a moment.

She felt Franziska approach her to the right side and grab her hand. "I could stare at these flowers all day; I planted and I personally care for each flower on this property myself..." She let go of Adrian's hand for a moment to clutch her side; she seemed nervous being this open about her sensitive side. "...It's the only time I don't feel like lashing someone with my whip..."

Adrian grabbed Franziska's hand, returning them to the position they were in before. "I think they're beautiful, Franziska." She saw her blushing a bit. "_Danke."_

They sat in silence for a moment; they both felt as if they could sit like this for the rest of their lives and be perfectly happy with what they both had done with themselves.

After a while, Franziska spoke up. "May I interest you in some coffee? I have some very luxurious blends..."

"That sounds wonderful...I take it with both sugar and cream." Franziska smiled at this. "As do I." She called for her personal maid to fetch them both some coffee. "Grunhilda has been my caretaker ever since I was a baby; I've grown to look at her like a member of my family. Anytime I go back to Germany or if I return to America, Grunhilda always follows."

A kind-looking older woman came out of the back with two cups of coffee on a silver tray; by now, the two women had seated themselves at the table on the back porch.

As she set the cups in front of the women, she looked at Franziska as if she were about to inquire something; "_Wer ist diese schone junge dame?"_

_ "Mein Liebhaber."_

The old woman kindly smiled as she pinched Adrian's cheek. _Ummm...I don't know what to make of this. I don't speak German... _

"_Ah, ist sie durchaus der Gut aussehende."_

Franziska smiled at Adrian and replied to the old woman "_Sie ist, nicht ist sie?"_

The old woman smiled and left to two of them be. Adrian couldn't tell what they had said. "So...what was that?"

"She asked who you were, I told her we were together and she said you were quite the looker. I agreed." Adrian blushed at this comment. Franziska just smiled and took a sip of her coffee; "_Sie sind ziemlich schon." ...I can only guess what that means..._

After this, they stared into each others eyes for a while; that is, until Adrian tried taking a sip of her coffee and spilled it all over herself. She hadn't done her common mantra when she does something embarrissing like this; it's well overdue. _Stupid stupid stupid..._

Franziska shot her a smirk. "Here, I have some clothes that will fit you upstairs." She grabbed Adrian's hand and led her to her room.

When Adrian saw what Franziska's room looked like, she was caught off gaurd.. _Everything's...blue! The walls, her bed, everything is...blue! _

Franziska started to blush. "Yes...well...I rather fancy this shade of blue, in case you couldn't tell."

Before Adrian could say anything, Franziska pulled out a pair of silk pajamas that were...you guessed it, blue. "Here. Try these on. My bathroom is right over there."

Adrian let out a cute giggle.

Franziska didn't understand what she had said. "What's so funny?"

Adrian kind of had a provocative smirk on her face. "Oh, nothing. I just thought I'd be more comfortable changing right here." Franziska saw where this was headed, and laid down on her bed.

Franziska knew she wasn't ready for anything big, but there's no harm in watching her change, at least...

She fixtated a stare onto Adrian's body. Once she had gotten into her underwear, she decided not to put the pajamas on, as expected. She came over and lay down beside Ms. von Karma, who was practically sweating bullets as Adrian moved her hand onto her shoulder.

Franziska jumped up quickly and proclaimed "I'm not ready!"

Adrian rested her head on her hand. "Well, I just thought you were a little tense after the trial today, that's all. If you're not ready, I'm okay with that." Once again, Adrian gave Franziska a provocative smirk. "However...I could accomodate you without going that far...I could just give you a back massage. That'll relieve some stress..." Adrian seemed a little more devilish with her smirk this time. "...and I think we will both be pleased with what we get out of it."

_Well, _Franziska thought, _It is JUST a back rub. _"...ok. That sounds acceptable."

After her statement, Franziska disrobed to, into her...you guessed it, blue undergarments, and laid down, back up on her bed.

At first, she felt tense, having never been touched by another person while only in her underwear, but as the time passed on, she began to feel both relaxed and excited at the same time, with every touch, with every time Adrian pressed deep into her back muscles, Franziska just felt more of her worries slip away...at least for the time being, that is.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

After they were done, Franziska and Adrian put their clothes back on; Adrian dressed herself in the silky blue pajamas Franziska had lent her, while Franziska slipped back into her work clothes.

Adrian looked puzzled. "Don't you have something more casual you wear around the house?"

Franziska had never thought of this; _I never wear anything that's not formal...why is that? _She decided that there were more important things to be considering at the moment, such as how she was going to answer the question. "No. I only wear formal attires. You never know when you're going to be brought a case, so I need to be prepared and professional at all times."

Adrian simply nodded. "Makes sense. So what's the rest of the house look like?" She put a playful grin on her face; "Is it all this blue?"

Franziska blushed. "N-no! Here, I will show you." She grabbed Adrian's hand and rushed her into the hallway.

"First, my younger brother's room." She showed her a room that had basically the same design as hers, but with more than just one color. Adrian looked shocked. "You have a younger brother?"

"Yes. I believe you know him as Miles Edgeworth."

Adrian looked shocked. "No way! You two don't look alike at all! A-and his last name isn'e von Karma; It's Edgeworth."

Franziska understood the misconception; It had happened before, except she usually just hit them with her riding crop to get them back on subject, since that was her substitute to her whip during the time she and Edgeworth lived together. "He was adopted by my father, Manfred von Karma, to be shown the von Karma way..." She let out a sigh, and picked up a picture of 3 young boys sitting by his bedside. "...he had known other things in his life, though...he was able to find out the error of our ways more quickly than I was able to..." A tear began falling from her eye. "...that's what happened in court today. I realized everything he had been telling me had been true. I was wrong..." Immediately after saying this, Franziska realized she had never used that last sentence in her entire life.

Adrian put her hand on Franziska's shoulder and saw the picture she was looking at.

"Is...is that Mr. Wright?"

"Y-yes, it is..." Franziska was actually grateful for the subject change; the more she talked about what had happened today, the weaker she felt, and Franziska didn't like the feeling of weakness. "And that useless fool of a man with them is Larry Butz..." Franziska immediately got a headache at the mere mention of his name and began tugging her whip furiously. "I question why and how the two of them ever became friends with a foolish fool of a foolish man of the likes of that fool."

Adrian chuckled at her irritation. Franziska felt her headache go away.

_Normally, _Franziska thought, _if someone laughed at my anger, they would feel the full extent of the wrath of Franziska von Karma... _Franziska smiled. _...But it's sort of cute when she does it._

Franziska continued with the tour, showing Adrian her private office, the trophy room, and the billiards room/minibar, where they made their stop.

Franziska had decided to stop the tour there to share a glass of wine. (Or at least, Adrian was drinking wine. Franziska just drank cranberry juice, since she was underaged and wouldn't think to do something as foolish as break the law, but she didn't want to look bad in front of Adrian, so she thought this was the best choice.) She had stopped the tour at that point because they were getting into her papa's section of the house, and she couldn't handle all the bad memories and personal demons that would bring out of her...

She had Grunhilda make her way up to that part of the house to pour them their drinks. Franziska looked at her pocket watch; _5:30. It's hard to believe everything that has transpired today, and it's not even time for dinner yet..._

Franziska had an idea as she picked up her wine glass filled withcranberry juice. "I was thinking I could take you out to one of my favorite restuarants here in America for dinner tonight...it's rather high end, but I think you'll enjoy it."

Adrian smiled. "Yes, that'd be great."

"Of course, you'll have to wear a dress. Considering we're roughly the same size, I'm sure I can accomodate you, if you want."

"That'll be fine." Adrian wondered if all of Franziska's dresses would be blue.

After Franziska used her power to get them reservations for that night, she went to ready herself. She did this rather quickly, considering her jewelry had already been on because of her court appearance, and the face that her makeup didn't run, as she only wore the most luxurious brand, which never seemed to run. Her dress and her eyeshadow matched her hair, and she wore a pair of silver heels to match her earrings. She patiently seated herself on her bed as she waited for Adrian to finish up her preperation.

She began drumming her fingers against the bedspread as she grew more and more impatient. _What's taking her so long? _With each passing second she tapped the bedspread faster and faster.

She got up and was about to knock on the door, but Adrian came out as soon as she stood up. She was wearing a red sequined dress that Franziska had for some reason purchased and then never wore, along with a pair of elbow length leather gloves and black heels, with red lipstick on to complete the look.

Franziska was so overwhelmed she couldn't help but speak her native tongue. "_Achtung...Mein Herz kann die Schoneit, die Sie, Adrian ausstrahlen, nicht behandeln."_

Adrian just smiled. "...Thank you." They held each other for a moment and shared a kiss before Franziska walked Adrian out to the BMW.

When they arrived, they walked to the door holding hands (With Franziska holding her trusty whip in her opposite hand) but had let go when they entered the restuarant. The host seated them in the back, away from the other patrons. Franziska deduced that the host had seen that they were together, so he didn't want them with the other customers in order to avoid a dilemma. _I better not get angry or Adrian will catch on, because this is a very sensitive subject with her._

After they had ordered and received their meals, they just ate in silence. It was by no means an awkward silence; a pianist had been playing a soft, slow tune that had gone perfectly with the candlelight and red table cloths, and the atmosphere was just so relaxing. You had warm towels brought to your table and the silverware was gilded in gold.

Franziska had always found the lobster thermidor here quite exquisite; she often came here for dinner alone on the day of a trial. While the service was high class, it wasn't friendly like Mr. Koffi's coffee shop. The waiters and waitresses never seemed to remember their customers or had a conversation with them, they just checked in and conceded to their every request.

She noticed Adrian had ordered the tri-tip steak. The price was of no concern, of course, but she had never really pictured her as the type to eat a steak; she had figured her to be more of a grilled salmon type.

After their meal, they decided to take a walk around a nearby pond. The moonlight reflected off of the water, which made it feel special to both women.

They held each others hands tightly as they were making their way around the pond. They were just talking about trivial things; about things like how Adrian needed a new hair straightener, Franziska's flowers, Adrian's rough experience with contact lenses, the like.

After they had made a full circle, Adrian stopped and turned in front of Franziska.

"Friska, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you..."

Franziska had been too worried about what would come out of Adrian's mouth to notice the new pet name. "...Yes?"

Adrian looked down at their feet; "...I'm in love with you, Franziska von Karma."

Under normal circumstances, Franziska would'nt have reacted well; they had been dating for only 3 or 4 days now...but this was different. Franziska knew that if Adrian only felt for her a tenth of what she felt for Adrian, they'd be together for the rest of their lives.

_"_I love you too, Adrian Andrews_."_


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

The two women kept smiling at each other as Franziska drove them back to the von Karma manor. Franziska had never let the words "I love you" escape her thoughts in her entire life. And the kiss they shared after those words...Franziska felt her heart flutter a little.

She felt Adrian put her hand on her thigh as she was driving. She no longer jumped or tensed up when Adrian touched her, as she had grown to like the excitement and warmth it made her feel.

They continued to drive through the night back into the countryside in silence, until Adrian decided to turn on the satellite radio.

When she turned it on, an XM station that played exclusively classical music began to play.

Adrian chuckled. "Friska, you actually like Mozart and Beethoven?"

Franziska tried remaining unphased by her teasing. "Yes. But Bach is by far my favorite."

Adrian had no clue who this "Bok" was, so she decided to play some actual music. She tried finding a station for some music she liked, and after a while, she found it.

She felt Franziska jump at the loud guitar, as her hand was still placed on Friska's thigh. _...has she never heard this kind of music before...? _Adrian remembered how Franziska had never really had access to things like she did as a child.

"W-What is this noise you're calling music!?"

Adrian confidently replied "Friska, It's grunge! You know, the Seattle scene from way back before we were born? When I became a manager, I wanted to manage bands like these guys." She turned up the music. "This band is called Soundgarden. They're my favorite! I wanted to manage bands like these guys when I chose to become a manager way back when."

Franziska looked as if she was NOT happy with the music that was playing. "I can hardly see how men screaming at the top of their lungs can be called music."

Adrian sighed; "Well, to each their own, I guess." She turned off the radio.

Franziska spoke up. "Wait! If you like it, I don't mind listening to it with you." Franziska smirked. "But you have to listen to Bach with me sometime, too."

Adrian quickly turned the radio back on. "Ok! Sounds like a deal!"

After Adrian was done filling Franziska's car with her attempts at singing along to the song's lyrics, she found herself back at the von Karma manor.

Franziska quickly got out, turning the car off and therefore cutting off the radio with it. "Come now, Adrian. I have work in the morning, I need to sleep. If you want, you can watch tv and stay up as late as you want, but I must rest."

Adrian realized Franziska knew about her current lack of employment; "Ok. Sounds good."

After Franziska changed into her blue nightgown and laid down on the bed, Adrian followed suit, changing into the pair of blue silk pajamas Franziska let her wear and laying down beside her lover.

After getting situated in the bed with Franziska, Adrian leaned over and whispered into her ear, "Goodnight, Friska. I love you."

Franziska replied. "_Guten Nacht._ Love you too."

And with that, both women went to sleep.

Franziska had always been an early riser; whether it was required of her or not. She had fixed herself a cup of coffee to go with reading her old case files she had wrote detailed accounts of in her laptop. Since she had never been one for newspapers, she felt this was a good substitute, because it felt like she was reading a mystery novel starring herself as the main character.

She heard Adrian sleepily bumbling down the stairs. Once she had made her way down, she drowsily mumbled a good morning to Franziska and made her way into to the kitchen .

After a few minutes in the kitchen, she came into the living room with her own cup of coffee and sat down by Franziska on the leather-upholstered couch.

She took a sip of her coffee and then inquired "Whatcha looking at?" with sort of a cutesy voice.

Franziska turned her laptop to where both of them could see it and replied "My old case files. I'm looking for things I did wrong so I could know what not to do again and trying too figure out to fix it."

Adrian just grinned "Ohh, it looks like it'd be interesting. Can I read them with you?"

Franziska liked the interest Ms. Andrews was generating. "Yes, of course. Just keep in mind you need to get changed back into your own clothes before we leave at 8. I had Grunhilda clean them last night while we were gone. I will drop you off at your apartment complex on my way to work."

"Oh, okay..." Adrian said disheartenedly. She seemed as if she didn't want to leave. "Maybe we could do lunch together during your lunch break?"

"I think that sounds acceptable. You can call me before noon and we'll work out the details."

"Ok, I will."

After reading about some more of Franziska's cases together, Adrian got up and changed back into her clothes, and upon her return they both made their way out to the car.

Upon entering, Franziska put a CD into the car's radio.

"What are we going to listen to?" Adrian inquired curiously.

"Bach. I said if I listened to your music with you, you'd have to listen to mine with me sometimes as well."

Adrian remembered this. "Ok."

Adrian could see where they differed on music. When she had introduced Franziska to her kind of music, she did not enjoy the loud noise it produced, and when listening to this "Bok" fellow, all she could manage to envision from the music were fat people bouncing like balloons; slowly and with boredom.

However, like Franziska did with her music last night, she managed to deal with it because of Franziska's enjoyment of the sounds. _It's not so bad if you look at it like this..._

Upon making it to her apartment complex, Adrian had grown sleepy with Franziska's music and decided to take a nap upon entering her apartment. She leaned over and kissed Franziska that basically read "See you in a little bit." and exited the car and made her way up the to apartment building's door.

Franziska let out a sigh as she watched Adrian go. She wished they could be together all of the time, and then made her way over to the prosecutor's office.

Upon parking her car in the specified parking garage, she hastily made her way over to the elevator. _He'll never come near an elevator..._ Franziska knew it was wrong to take advantage of Edgeworth's fears as means of avoiding him, but she really didn't want to see him yet. She wasn't ready to talk about the trial yesterday with anyone, especially not him.

Upon making it up to the floor her office was on, she realized this would be nearly impossible, because Edgeworth's office was just down the hall a little ways from her own.

She filed and filled out paperwork for a while, with no calls from Adrian or any Edgeworth sightings. She was quite bored until she heard her phone ring, greatly hoping for it to be Adrian setting up their lunch date.

"Franziska von Karma speaking."

Immediately upon hearing the voice on the other end of the line, she recognized it as Adrian's. "Yes. I was wondering about what you wanted to do for lunch today."

"I've picked out where we've gone everytime we've gone out so far. I think I should give you a turn."

Adrian seemed to be mulling over the possibilites. All of a sudden, Franziska heard the sound of fingers snapping as Adrian exclaimed "Oh! I know! We could go get some noodles from this stand that's about halfway between my apartment building and the prosecutor's office. After that, we could take a walk in the park across the street. How's that sound?'

Franziska honestly liked the idea. "It sounds good. I'll meet you at the stand at 12 o'clock sharp."

"I love you, Friska."

Franziska couldn't help but blush everytime Adrian said those 3 words. She had grown to like the pet name Adrian had given her, even if that foolish friend of Phoenix Wright's and Edgeworth's had called her that first. "I love you too, Adrian." With that, she hung up the phone and turned to face Edgeworth, who was sitting in one of the two chairs directly across from her desk.

She instantly began tugging on her whip furiously; "H-how much did you hear!?"

Edgeworth smirked. "Enough to know that you're dating another woman, Franziska. Adrian Andrews, no less."

With this, Franziska turned red and looked down at her desk. "...yes. This is true."

Edgeworth remained serious. "I thought it strange when I saw her kiss you on the cheek yesterday before the trial. Anyway, I had originally come to congratulate you on the decision you made during the trial yesterday..."

With each moment of silence, Franziska grew more and more worried of what would come out of Edgeworth's mouth next.

"...but it now seems I have two things I must be congratulating you on."

Franziska couldn't hide her shock at what Edgeworth had said; "Wh-what!? ...but we're both women...I thought you'd be one to disapprove, Miles Edgeworth..."

Edgeworth closed his eyes and kept a straight face. "...Love is to be limited to nothing..."

Franziska sat in shock out of her adoptive brother's support; he got up and made his way out the door.

She quickly stopped him. "Wait!"

He turned around with his hand remaining on the door handle. "...yes, Franziska?"

Franziska had a lot of trouble saying the next words that would come out of her mouth. "...Thank you, Miles Edgeworth."

Edgeworth simply nodded and made his way out of the office.

Franziska checked her pocket watch and saw it was time to be going for her lunch date with Adrian, so she snatched up her purse and left.


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Adrian had seated herself on a bench near the noodle stand they were going to stop at, and was pleasantly surprised when an older man seated himself next to her to feed some pigeons.

Her surprise quickly turned into boredom and annoyance, as the old man aimlessly rambled on about what's wrong with the youth of today and how much he hated everything. After a while, she noticed two things about the man she didn't like; he was throwing his seeds AT the birds, not TO them, and he kept on staring at her legs that were showing as a product of the dress that she had decided to wear; one she hadn't wore since the Treasures of Kurain exhibit, or her last job.

When she saw Franziska approaching, she jumped up and ran over to her to get away from the creepy old man. _We better go before this guy says anything else..._ She grabbed Franziska's hand and led her over to the noodle cart.

They got their noodles from another strange man who seemed to base his own existance off of noodles. _Even this guy's hair looks like noodles...I've heard of the freaks come out at night, but it seems that the early bird gets the worm today._

After they had finished their noodles, they decided to take a rain check on the stroll in the park and go watch a movie together.

Adrian wondered if Franziska had to get back to work. She decided to inquire more about this. "Umm...Friska? Are you sure it's alright if we go see a movie? I mean, you do have work today and all..."

Franziska answered with the utmost confidence "I make my own hours as a high prosecutor, and all I have today is paperwork from my last case." Franziska smirked. "I'm think that can wait for a little bit, don't you?"

She couldn't help but smile as she blushed. Adrian knew how important Franziska's work was to her, so it made her feel extra-special that she'd take time off of it for her.

When they got to the theatre, they began looking at which movies they wanted to see. Adrian noticed a romantic comedy she had heard about. "Ohhh! How about this one?" She pointed towards a poster displaying what appeared to be a klutzy brunette and a man who looked like he was an Aeropostle model. The poster read "_365 ways to humilate yourself in front of that special someone" _

Adrian couldn't help but smile as she thought _I'm surprised that they didn't consult me when they were writing that movie._

Franziska thought that it was "acceptable for a Saturday matinee," which, fortunately, it was Saturday and it was the time of day in which they would call it a matinee, so that meant yes. They purchased their tickets from the ticket booth and went inside to get popcorn and the like. As they were being served, Adrian noticed one of the theatre staff staring her and Franziska down. _It'd be best if I didn't inform Friska,_ Adrian thought to herself, _because she's got that whip in her hand, and we'd get the boot in a heartbeat if she lashed it at one of the staff. _Luckily for them, Franziska didn't notice the cold stares from the man sweeping up stale popcorn and dirt off of the theatre carpet.

As they made their way into the theatre in which the movie was playing, they decided to sit in the middle of the room as that permitted them the best view. Franziska carried the bucket of popcorn between her arm and her side she she could carry her whip in her free hand; Adrian carried the tray which held their drinks. After they has seated themselves, Adrian had watched the previews rather intently while Franziska set her iPhone on silent mode.

As soon as the movie started, both women gained complete interest in it. It wasn't a very good movie; it was actually very cheesy, but just being there together in silence watching the movie together made it a good movie to watch.

They both moved their hands towards each other simultaneously, meeting at the armrest between their seats. They sat in silence for the rest of the movie, Franziska's hand on top of Adrian's.

After the movie, they made their way out to Franziska's BMW. As they got in the car, Franziska spoke up.

"I have to go finish some paperwork down at the office. If you want...I can drop you off at your apartment...and come pick you up and you could stay with me again tonight...I really enjoyed your company last night..." Franziska blushed at this request. _What if she has plans and can't do it...?_

Adrian brightened up, like the sun brightens up the sky after a rainy day. "Of course I can! I'll pack some clothes and stuff so that way I'll be prepared for when I make a mistake."

Franziska smiled. _When she makes a mistake. _

They listened to a band Adrian called "Rage Against the Machine" on the way back to her apartment. _Achtung...how is this rubbish called music? It hurts to listen to. How does anyone even enjoy this?_

As they pulled up in frontof the doors, they shared a kiss, after which Franziska told her she'd be there to pick her up at 4.

"Ok, see you then! Love you!"

"Love you too, Adrian." They kissed one more time, and Adrian made her way up to her apartment building's doors.

She felt so happy. Love was a feeling that she felt was reserved for fools before she met Adrian. Now she knows how important it really was.

Franziska felt like nothing could bring her down. That is, until she saw the prosecutor's office surrounded by police vehicles.

For some inexplicable reason, she felt a sudden feeling of despair and sickness coming over her. She marched up to one a demanded to know what was going on.

"Sorry, ma'am, but that information is..." _CRACK!_

"I AM FRANZISKA VON KARMA, AND I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!"

The officer froze up. She noticed his nametag read "M. Meekins." _What a foolish name._

After a moment of silence, she prepared her whip once again, only to hear a certain Scruffy detective running up to her.

"SIIIIIIRRRR!" She turned and let her whip fly on him instead of the pathetic officer guarding the crime scene. _CRACK!_

"Ow!"

Franziska had more than a touch of anger in her voice as the feeling of sickness inside her continued to grow worse with each passing moment. "Do foolish fools of foolish detectives like your foolish self know not to foolishly scare a woman by foolishly running up behind her and yelling like a fool!? Now, what is it you so urgently need to inform me?"

As Gumshoe was about to speak up, he felt Ms. von Karma's whip hit him once more.

"Too slow!"

"O-ow!" She was growing tired of waiting.

"Scruffy!"

Gumshoe finally felt the courage to speak up. "I-It's Prosecutor Edgeworth, s-sir...he's been shot..."

Franziska no longer felt anger brimming over her sides, but now just sadness and loneliness. "W-where was he shot at? Where is he now?"

Gumshoe sheepishly replied "...He's alright. The bullet hit him in the shoulder. He's at the hospital right..." Franziska didn't allow him to finish before she dropped her whip and ran to her car. She knew what she had to do.

She must've hit 120 on her way to the hospital, and the police knew better than to stop her. She walked in the doors, nearly in tears. She found the nearest nurse and walked up to her.

"I...I...I demand to know how Miles Edgeworth is doing!"

The nurse looked up and saw a young blue haired girl looking as if she was deciding whether to throw up or cry; "He's in surgery having the bullet removed. He's going to be fine."

Although the nurse had reassured her of his well-being, she couldn't get the fact out of her head that some one had tried to kill her brother, especially after everything good he had done for her...there was only one other person she liked besides him, and that person was Adrian.

After about an hour or so of sitting in the hospital and looking down at the floor, she saw Adrian walk in the hospital doors, but couldn't bring herself to look at her.

Adrian took a seat beside her and put her arm around her; "H-hey, Friska...:

Franziska couldn't look up and tell Adrian everything, not matter how much she wanted to.

"...H-Hey, Adrian."

Adrian pulled something out of her purse. "Here, a kind detective said to give this to you..." She handed Franziska her whip.

This reminded Franziska of what had happened a little over a year ago, last time she threw away her whip...and how Edgeworth was the only one to go chasing after her.

She began tearing up. _Miles Edgeworth...you better be alright._

They sat together in absolute silence until day became night, Franziska never looking up from the floor and Adrian never leaving her side.

When visiting hours were over, the nurse from earlier came over to Franziska to say something.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but your brother made it through the surgery alright, and he is currently in stable condition. You can come to visit him tomorrow, if you like."

Franziska didn't look up. "..._Danke."_

With that, she grabbed Adrian's hand and led her out to the BMW. She couldn't wait to get home, to where it would just be her and Adrian. Immediately after she thought this, she realized home just wouldn't feel right without Adrian anymore.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

Franziska drove Adrian and herself back to the von Karma manor in complete silence; the clock on the radio said it was nearly 11:30 by the time they got back to the estate.

She pulled in the garage and they walked up to the door; Franziska began pulling the keys to her front door out of her purse, but stopped.

"What's wrong?" Adrian asked.

Franziska didn't say word. She put her arms around Adrian's shoulders; Adrian returned the favor by putting her arms around Franziska's waist; and Franziska pulled in and kissed her.

The kiss lasted a while, and there was no tongue, even though they had already gotten to that point in their relationship; It was a soft, sensual kiss that both women felt unabridged passion during their moment of being entwined.

There were no lights on anywhere around them; the only way they could see was with the light the moon provided them, but they both knew they would be able to find each other with or without the ability to see.

After a while, they stopped, and Franziska wrapped her arms around Adrian even tighter, and they placed their heads against each other in a way that they were both looking down at their shoes.

Franziska spoke in a soft manner Adrian had never heard from her before; she was always so in control and domineering; "Let's just talk all night...ok, Adrian?" There was a hint of sobbing in her voice.

"Ok, Friska...ok."

With that, Grunhilda unlocked the door and had a broomstick in her hand, ready to swat it at any trespassers, until she saw it was Franziska and Adrian at the door.

"_Oh, Franziska, sehe ich, dass Sie im Augenblick beschaft sind. Lassen Sie mich Sie reparieren und Frau Andrews irgendein Kaffee und Sie kann nach innen kommen, gut?"_

Franziska was pleased with Grunhilda's offer. "_Das sollte herrlich sein. Danke."_

Adrian looked puzzled. "Um...so, what're you two saying?"

Franziska smiled. "She saw it was us and offered to make us some coffee and that we should come inside. I told her that would be splendid, thanks."

With that, Franziska led Adrian into the manor, and Franziska informed Grunhilda to bring the coffee up to her room. As they made their ways up the staircase and down the hall towards Franziska's room, she was fighting the tears that had been forming in her eyes as she had been all day. _Damn tears...they just won't go away..._

They laid down on Franziska's bed together, remaining fully clothed. Franziska lay with her head propped up against her hand and her fingers running along through her hair. Adrian lay in a position that mirrored this, except her hair was put up like she liked to wear it, so her fingers didn't run through her hair in the same sense.

Grunhilda brought them their coffee and Franziska replied with a _"Danke." _Adrian still had no clue as to what that word meant, but could guess it meant "thanks."

After Grunhilda had left the room, Franziska felt compelled to tell Adrian about Miles.

A shot of pain came over her face..._What if I make myself look stupid?... but I need to tell someone this, and Adrian's to only one I trust to be this open with..._

Adrian looked at Franziska as if she knew every word she was thinking. "...You want to talk about Mr. Edgeworth, don't you...?"

Finally, with those words, Franziska felt as if it were alright to let the tears roll down.

"...I hadn't ever seen another kid before he came along...the only person I had known was my father, and he put so much pressure on me...it was nice to have Miles around to be with...he would tell me about his friends he had left behind..." Franziska let a sort of half smile come over her teary face. "...and I would hit him with my riding crop and tell him '_A von Karma doesn't need friends, only perfection!'_...but in reality, he was the only friend I had..." Franziska immediately took back that previous statement. "..._Nein._ He was my brother."

Adrian put her hand over her own heart and said "...Franziska..."

Franziska continued on; "I always acted as if I were a better prosecutor than him, and I had thought that for a long time, too. But just recently he had helped show me what being a prosecutor really was...it wasn't about _perfection_, it was about the _truth..._"

"...and now I know who I am supposed to be. I'm not _Franziska von Karma, perfect prosecutor_...I'm just _Franziska von Karma, prosecutor._.." She took a sip of her coffee. "...and for the first time in my life, I'm proud of who I am."

Adrian smiled at this statement. "...I love you, Friska."

"...I love you too, Adrian..."

With that, the women undressed each other, and for the first time in both of their lives, made love with another human being.

That night, Franziska had a dream.

She was sitting in a pitch black room all by herself; a spotlight illuminated the area on which she was sitting; she was a little girl again.

Out of nowhere, a voice came from all around her, but no one else was present. She immediately recognized the voice as her father's.

"_You dissappoint me, Franziska. You dare disgrace the von Karma name by becoming weak and pathetic with your truth?"_

_ "Y-yes papa. But I don't want to convict the wrong person...people have died from what we have done...that's not perfect...that's evil!"_

The voice grew irritated. "_Silence! You dare defy your father, Franziska?"_

_ "...y-yes, papa...I do..." _With that, she awoke with a gasp, and saw Adrian still asleep beside her.

The next morning, Adrian woke up in Franziska's bed completely naked. She got up, showered and put on Franziska's blue silk pajamas that were basically hers now. She looked at the clock in Franziska's room, and the time was 9:30 am. _Franziska must be at work now..._ Adrian thought as she made her way down the stairs.

However, when she got all the way down, she saw Franziska reading about past cases on her laptop over a cup of coffee.

She walked up behind her and kissed her on the head. "Good morning, sunshine."

Franziska looked up; "Good morning, _meine Liebe."_

After another kiss, in which Adrian realized that they were like one of those cutesy-giddy-in-total-love-with-each-other-couples that did everything together now, Adrian asked "Don't you have work today?"

Franziska smiled. "No. The chief prosecutor is a very religious man, and he won't let us work on Sundays, even if we want to...I was thinking we could spend the day together...is that alright, Adrian?"

Adrian was beaming at the prospect of spending all day with Franziska. "Of course!"

Franziska's expression got really serious all of a sudden. "But at 11, we must go visit my younger brother in the hospital. Will you come with me to do that?"

Adrian thought for a second. _Isn't he older than her though...? _

Franziska snapped her fingers. "Adrian?"

Adrian jumped. "O-oh! Of course I will, Friska!"

Franziska furrowed her brow. "Is something the matter?"

Adrian smiled meekly and her face turned red; "No...it's just...isn't Mr. Edgeworth older than you?"

Franziska let out a laugh. "_Ja,_ he is." A voice called from the kitchen, speaking in German. After the voice died down, Franziska looked at Adrian with a warm smile on her face.

"How do you like your eggs?"

Adrian involuntarily plastered a silly grin all over her face; "Scrambled."


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

When they had arrived at the hospital, a dark gray overcast had taken over the sky; there was not a hint of light to be seen from any angle. However, it didn't look as if it were going to rain, fortunately for the two woman. Franziska quietly thought to herself _Maybe we could go for a walk together if the weather doesn't worsen..._

They walked through the revolving doors and the nurse recognized Franziska immediately. _Good, _she thought, _I have no time to waste._

She showed them to Miles' room and left them be.

He was standing at the window drinking a cup of tea, seemingly staring into the clouds. He still had the wires from the machines they had put him on on his person. Franziska also noticed that he looked very poorly. His usual hairstyle had been messed up, his right arm was in a sling, and his skin complexion was more like a ghost than that of her younger brother. _Miles Edgeworth...what has the world done to you?_

Franziska spoke up; "I see you had Scruffy bring you your beloved teaset."

Edgeworth slowly turned and smiled, but what seemed to be a drop of sweat was beating down his forehead. Despite how obviously bad off he was, he still managed to reply in a refined tone "But of course, Franziska. I go nowhere without it."

She noted a bloodstain on his right shoulder from where the bullet wound had bled, and then noted how awkwardly he was holding the tea cup in his left hand. Instant feelings of worry crept over her; She'd been shot before, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. "Why...who did this you?"

Edgeworth stayed strong. "That I cannot say; but don't worry about me, Franziska. You need to be worried about yourself; after all..." Edgeworth turned back towards the window. "I believe the man who shot me was looking for you."

Franziska jumped; "Wh-Wh-What makes you say that!?"

Edgeworth paused for a moment. "...it happened in your office, Franziska." Franziska started tugging her whip nervously.

Edgeworth continued; "Since our offices are right next to each other, I heard someone rummaging and pillaging around in there. Deducing that you had stayed out longer for your lunch date with Ms. Andrews, I decided to investigate the matters myself..."

Franziska could not stay quiet any longer; "Then he shot you, didn't he...?"

Edgeworth looked down as he quietly articulated his next statement. "...yes."

Edgeworth picked himself back up. "I believe he was stealing information on the case with Mr. Lombardi. He had thrown all your files off of the shelf only to take the one of off your desk. I believe he was working for the mafia, stealing back the information Mr. Lombardi had so kindly offered us. As soon he saw me, he fired his gun at me and escaped before anyone could catch him."

Franziska felt overcome with emotion. _It's my fault that he got shot... _

She gritted out her next words through her teeth as she tugged her whip furiously; "_Miles Edgeworth..._Why did you have to be a fool and leave your office?"

Edgeworth turned around and held his cup of tea in the air as he smirked. "Curiousity killed the cat, I suppose."

Edgeworth piped up before Franziska could get any angrier; "I see you brought Ms. Andrews along with you. What a pleasant surprise. May I interest either of you in a cup of tea?"

"No thank you, Mr. Edgeworth."

"_Nein."_

Edgeworth sat his tea cup down and started back to his bed; "Very well then."

He lay down in the hospital bed and picked up a book on law; "Oh, and Franziska, I secured you a few days off from work, just until things cool off. I hope you don't mind."

Franziska felt a sudden calmness sweep over her. She smirked; "Miles Edgeworth, I know you better than to sit down and read a book on law. Which edition of the _Steel Samurai _is behind that book?"

Edgeworth put the book down from his face, revealing a flustered look on a face that was as red as the bloodstain on his shoulder; "T-there's...n-no..." He quickly regained his composure; "Hmph. There's no fooling you, huh, Franziska?"

Franziska felt as though she didn't want to be hear any longer. "I must be going. I send you my condolences." She bowed and proceeded to walk out the door.

Adrian waved as she followed Franziska; "Goodbye, Mr. Edgeworth!"

As they walked down the hall, Franziska heard the nurse telling Edgeworth how worried she was when she showed up here yesterday. She couldn't hide an irritated blush from Adrian.

Franziska decided to speak before Adrian could point this out. "When we got back to the manor, there's a place I would like to show you. Weather permitting, of course."

Adrian smiled. "Of course. What's this place like?"

Franziska gave a simple "You'll see." as her reply.

During the ride back, the overcast had gone away, revealing a blue sky and a bright sun, and the weather had warmed up considerably. When they pulled into the carport, Franziska quickly turned off the car and led Adrian out to the back of the house.

She held tightly on to Adrian's hand as she led Adrian through the backyard flower garden, into the woods behind her house.

Adrian thought to herself _Thank god it's broad daylight. I wouldn't be able to handle this at night time._

She followed suit of Franziska all the way through the woods until they reached a small pond.

When they got there, Adrian quickly noticed how peaceful it was. The water in the pond was a sapphire blue; lily pads went freely about it. In some areas beautiful wild flowers grew. She noticed how some nearby bushes had no leaves; _Probably because of Friska and her whip._ She stifled back a chuckle.

Franziska spoke up; _"_This is where I go to be alone and think...no one knows about this place but you and I..."

Adrian smiled and warmly said "Thank you for showing me this place, Franziska. It's beautiful."

Franziska simply replied "Yes. Yes it is."

Franziska walked over to a tree; the tree had a hole in it, and it looked as if she was reaching into to pull something out.

She returned over to Adrian with some pieces of paper and a book. She showed the pieces of paper first.

Franziska sheepishly placed the pieces of paper into Adrian's hand and then looked away.

Adrian quickly recognized them as pictures Franziska had drawn; the first one appeared to be a younger version of herself with a man in a red coat and a triple cravat; _This must be her and Mr. Edgeworth... They both look really happy here, too. _She had signed it _Franziska von Karma, age 9. _Although her artwork was on par for her age, Adrian noticed how beautiful her signature looked, especially for a 9 year old._ It's like she spent hours perfecting it... _She looked at the next drawing. It appeared to be an older gentleman with an outstreched hand being held over a smaller version of a younger Franziska, who appeared to be in great distress. She thought it to be Franziska's father, the late Manfred von Karma, but there was indication of such. The signature on this one read _Franziska von Karma, age 13. _She looked at this last picture, and it was an incredibly detailed picture of herself and Franziska kissing on the front porch last night; the signature read _Franziska von Karma, age 19. _

_This picture was drawn last night..._ Franziska spoke up when she noticed the picture Adrian was looking at.

"I came out here this morning and drew that picture. I woke up rather early..." There was a breif pause; but Adrian decided it'd be best to let it go until later. "...so I came out here to draw a picture...do you think it is good?"

Adrian smiled and let out a small giggle; "Yes, Friska. I think it's very good."

Franziska seemed to like the compliment but was still sad, which Adrian thought to be understandable.

Franziska handed Adrian the book. Adrian looked over the cover and read the title; _To Kill a Mockingbird. I never thought Friska would be one to read a book like this._

Franziska spoke up once more; "My father wouldn't let me read books that were not pertaining to law...I had a copy here and another one back home in Germany. I love that book...and I never would have heard of it had it not been for Miles Edgeworth..."

Adrian gave all of her attention to the young German woman who was having trouble articulating her feelings. A tear dropped from Franziska's eye. "...it really hurt to see him like that...he better be alright."


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

As they made their way through the woods, Franziska's mind was bouncing all over the place. She had never openly shown her weaknesses in front of another person before, and she didn't plan to start making a habit of this, either. _I just feel so...safe with Adrian. I know she won't use this against me. It won't hurt for one person to know what I'm feeling...would it? _She kept thinking about how open she had been with Adrian all this time. No matter how much she wanted to stop thinking about it, she couldn't.

Franziska stopped dead in her track. Adrian turned to look and see what was happening.

"What's wrong?"

"Adrian...no matter what, never let people know the things I tell you. I'm a strong, independent woman who doesn't have any known weaknesses...and when it's not just me and you, I want it to stay that way."

Adrian looked a little hurt, but understood completely. "Ok, Friska...so, what are we going to do next?"

Franziska picked up on the attempt to change the subject, but still trusted Adrian enough to let it go. "I...I don't know. What do you do for entertainment?"

Adrian looked to be thinking about this. "Well...I..um..." Adrian appeared to be at a loss for words.

"Oh!" Her sudden outburst caught a vunerable Franziska off guard. "When I was little, my mom and I would make origami animals. You wanna do that?" Adrian had that child-like grin on her face again. _Or-a-gaam-e...? I could just see how she does it..._

Adrian, however, was able to pick up on Franziska's lack of knowledge on Origami. "Come on, it's fun! I'll show you how to do it." With that she grabbed Franziska's hand and rushed her back to the manor.

After they made their way into the house, Franziska still didn't know what "Or-a-gaam-e" was, but she knew she was about to find out, whether she wanted to or not.

Franziska asked about to required materials; "...What do you need for this 'Or-a-gaam-e'...?"

Adrian found Franziska's cluelessness cute. "Oh, all we need is paper."

Franziska snapped her fingers; "_Grunhilda, Holen Sie uns hinunter etwas Papier."_

In about 3 seconds flat, the elderly maid haid arrived with the paper. "_Danke." _With those words, Grunhilda knew it was ok to leave.

Adrian handed Franziska a piece of paper and began showing her how to make an origami crane, since that is one of the easier ones to make and Franziska still had to sound out the word "Origami." She knew this embarrassed Franziska, but Adrian understood that English was not her native tongue, and she didn't speak Japanese, so...

Franziska watched Adrian as she folded the piece of paper. After all was said and done, it looked like Adrian had made a small bird. _How cute... _Franziska thought.

Adrian walked her through how to make a paper bird like the one she had made, but Franziska kept on folding the paper wrong, and the her small bird ended up looking much worse than Adrian's. Franziska grew red and started hitting her fist on the table, like she did when she got angered in court. _My small bird looks as if it got lashed with my whip one too many times! Arghhh...how embarrassing! Humilating! Unacceptable! _After awhile, she buried her face into her hands.

She felt Adrian's handed running across her back. "It's ok, Friska. It's not something people usually get on the first try."

Before Franziska could respond, Adrian had set another piece of paper in front of her and was standing behind her, holding both of her hands, guiding her along the way to making her crane.

After being helped along the way, Franziska finally had her own small bird like Adrian's. Adrian wasn't done yet, though. "My mom came up with this special way to make an origami crane." She held hers up in the air and opened a small compartment under the wings. "This is where you can keep anything you want to from anyone else."

Franziska held her crane up and lifted up the wings on it's back just as Adrian did. Sure enough, there was a secret compartment there. She tried to hide her childlike amusment, but couldn't help but coo over what Adrian had shown her to do with just a simple piece of paper.

After Franziska had made a crane of her own, she had Grunhilda come down and pour herself and Adrian some drinks. As they had idle conversations over their drinks, Franziska smiled as she noticed how the sun shining through the windows reflected on Adrian's golden blonde hair.

Franziska interrupted Adrian mid-sentence. "You look beautiful today, Adrian."

Adrian softly, apparantly flustered as that caught her off guard, yet gracefully and blissfully replied with "Thank you. You look beautiful today too, Friska."

All of a sudden, an idea popped into Franziska's head. "Let's dance, Adrian."

Adrian seemed confused. "I never really pictured you as the kind for dancing, Friska..."

Franziska swiftly replied "I mean a slow dance. We can dance in the living room to some of Bach's overtures. Is that alright with you?"

Adrian thought this sounded wonderful. "Of course." That child-like grin Franziska had grown to adore appeared once more; "Of course, we'll have to move the coffee table out of the way."

After they put on some of Franziska's music and cleared themselves some space in the living room, they pulled each other close, and Adrian being just a tad shorter than Franziska was able to nestle her head against Franziska's chest. _This is what perfect really is..._Franziska thought to herself.

Grunhilda had noticed what they were doing and pulled the blinds and turned off all of the lights, leaving a single candle flickering in the created darkness for them. It was quite an amazing atmosphere, but the two women were so enamoured with each other they failed to notice a change. Adrian let out a satisfied sigh; _Here I was, going through life, thinking I'd never meet someone I loved as much as Celeste...but the love I feel for this woman holding me in her arms is in an entirely different universe than what I felt for Celeste..._

After an hour or so of just holding each other and swaying to the music like they were, the record ended, so they stopped.

Adrian decided to tell Franziska something she had never told anyone before.

"...You know, Friska...When I went to high school, I didn't have much friends...I had really bad acne and braces..."

Franziska couldn't imagine Adrian looking like that; she was just so beautiful..."Go on..."

"...I didn't have a friend in the world. I was clumsy, awkward, shy...but then I met this girl named Celeste Inpax...and she was beautiful, yet popular. She was dating the quarterback of the football team, she drove a Miata...the likes..." Franziska didn't like where this was going.

"One day, she reached out to me and asked for help on her homework. I was so happy to have the most popular girl want to hang out with me...but she just used me for my school-work and made me manage her everyday life..." _My poor Adrian, _Franziska thought.

"...but I had already fallen in love with her...so I told her...and she just laughed at me and blackmailed me through my feelings...even after we graduated high school, she made me do all of her work while she ran around with the stars...but one day she left for good...and I never thought I'd be able to go through love again if that was what it was going to be like..."

Franziska fought back tears as she vehemently tugged on her whip. She had to constantly reassure herself; _She's not breaking up with you, she's not breaking up with you..._

"...But then I met you, Franziska von Karma. And the love I felt for Celeste is nothing compared to how much I love you."

Franziska felt a sudden calmness and release of tension sweep over her. She let out a sigh of relief, and told Adrian "I love you too, Adrian...I love you too."

With that, the women shared a passionate kiss, and then Franziska had Grunhilda take pictures of them together outside with the flowers.

Before she could even get them developed, Franziska knew which picture was going to be her favorite; the one with Adrian and her kissing in front of the section of roses that were shaded dark-purple.

After that, she had Grunhilda go to town and get the pictures developed; and when she returned with them, Franziska got a better look at the picture she was going to frame and put by her bedside; Both women had their hands on their knees, facing each other, and Franziska had noticably crinkled her nose during the kiss. A look of shock came over her; Adrian looked up from the pictures she was looking at;

"Oh, you do that everytime we kiss, Friska. I think it's..." Adrian thought sexy to be an inappropriate word to describe it. "...breathtaking."

"_Danke." _Franziska blushed as she slid the picture into a frame. She knew this picture was going to end up by her bedside; like her little brother had put a picture of him and his best friends beside his own.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Adrian and Franziska were cuddling on Franziska's couch, watching the evening news on her Vizio to see if there was anything on about Miles' incident the previous day.

Franziska noted that the anchorman seemed to have a jaw the size of Mt. Everest and an extremely condenscending tone of voice; "...in other news, high prosecutor Miles Edgeworth was shot in a colleague's office yesterday afternoon..." _Colleague. _Franziska thought to herself. "...and was transported to a nearby medical center for surgery. He has been confirmed to be currently in stable condition and has declined to comment any further."

Franziska scowled. _Stable condition. Bah! If they had seen what I have seen today, they would not be saying he was stable. I've never seen that man look so physically weak._

Adrian seemed to notice that this was upsetting Franziska, so turned it on to something more pleasant.

After flipping through the channels for a little while, Franziska saw Adrian flip past a show she liked. "Wait. Go back a couple of channels."

Adrian did just this, and found what seemed to be an old cartoon with what appeared to be a block of cheese and his fat pink friend.

Franziska spoke up; "My father would not stand for such foolish shows as this one, but Grunhilda always taped them for me to watch when he was away."

Adrian seemed to remember this show from when she was a little girl, but couldn't remember the name. "Oh yeah. I remember this cartoon. I loved it when I was little!" Adrian plastered that now-commonplace grin on her face; "I watched every episode."

Franziska did not turn away from the tv. "As did I."

They watched together in childlike amusement at the square sponge and his underwater friends; Adrian's favorite was Patrick, but Franziska liked Squidward the best.

Adrian giggled at this. "Squidward? No one likes Squidward."

Franziska slowly smiled; "I only like him because he's my favorite shade of blue."

Adrian kept on teasing; "I should have guessed that much."

Franziska was still seeming down about her brother, but Adrian saw this as an oppurtune time to make her laugh.

From where she was sitting, she reached around both of Franziska's sides and began tickling her vigorously; Franziska couldn't stop laughing, as if she had just heard the world's funniest joke. She kept on calling for Adrian to stop it, but sort of hoped she wouldn't, as she liked the feeling of excitement this brought her.

Pretty soon, Franziska was on the floor, in tears because of all the laughing caused by Adrian's tickling. However, at a point where Adrian had Franziska pinned down on the floor, she stopped.

Franziska started recollecting her breath as she looked up at Adrian, who was staring down on her from above. "Yes? What is it, _meine liebe?_"

Adrian just seemed to be gazing at Franziska like something bad had happened. Franziska became increasingly worried as the staring persisted. _Oh god...what could've happened?_

Adrian caught her breath. "Franziska...have I ever told you you're beautiful?"

Franziska smirked back at her lover; "Only every day, _lieben._"

With that, Adrian leaned down towards Franziska and began kissing her; they had already had intercourse before, and they both knew what positions they liked, but because of their inexperience, it hadn't lasted very long.

As if on cue, the sound of thunder boomed through the sky and rain began pouring down; the lights in Franziska's house went out, and Grunhilda was on her break. It was the perfect time.

Franziska got some bedsheets out of the hallway closet and laid down on the couch; she let Adrian lay down on top of her and they covered up with the sheets as their heartrates increased in unison.

After they were done, they remained covered under the sheets, lying down on couch, Franziska laying nestled into Adrian's side.

After this, both women thoughy to themselves; _After a day like today, I can't picture ever being with anyone else again._

Both women got dressed before Grunhilda returned from her quarters from her break; the electricity had come back on, and they returned to their regular position, cuddling on the couch, watching cartoons when Grunhilda walked in and handed Franziska a letter from the prosecutor's office telling her because the scene of the crime was her office, she had the rest of the week off with pay.

Adrian read this letter over Franziska's shoulder. Franziska spoke up; "Well, Adrian, it looks like we could be spending the rest of the week together, if you don't mind."

Adrian grinned; "Only if you'll have me, Friska."

Later that night, Adrian had the idea to order some chinese takeout, which was a new expierence for Franziska.

Adrian had particulary enjoyed this place over anywhere else; she always had a menu handy in her purse, and the number was on her Blackberry's speed dial list.

Before she called, she wanted to know what Franziska wanted to order. Franziska had never heard of any of these dishes before, so she was embarrassed, naturally. She asked Adrian for her recommendation.

"I always thought their General Tso's chicken was awesome; but I should just warn you, it's really hot."

Franziska thought this warning was futile; "I'll have that!" She replied confidently.

Adrian, with a hint of warning in her voice, replied "Suit yourself..."

When Franziska heard a knock on the door, she opened it to great dismay as to who was outside with their order.

Furiously, she began tugging her whip. When Larry Butz looked up, he grinned.

"Oh, hey, Friska!" _CRACK! CRACK!_

Larry teared up as he usually did when she lashed him with her whip. "Call me by my first name, you American buffoon. And give me my order and leave my property, at once."

Larry smugly and flirtatiously waved his finger; "Uh uh uh...I believe a tip is in order for the delivery..." _CRACK! CRACK! _"BOOOOYYYY!"

With that, Adrian walked up to the door to see Franziska yelling at the delivery boy. "IS THAT TIP ENOUGH!?" _I wonder what that poor boy with our food said to make her this angry._

She walked up behind her to see what the ruckus was about, only to find a rather incompetent-looking delivery boy with their food.

After he was done cowering for a little bit, he saw Adrian.

Franziska turned red with anger and frustration when Larry said "Oh, I see you two are having a girls night...who's your beautiful friend, Franzy" _CRACK! _

She gritted her response through her teeth. "_This is Adrian Andrews...and that's Franziska to foolish fools like you."_

He reached out for her hand and kissed the top of it; "My my, I knew Franzy was sexy and all, but I didn't know she had such beautiful friends, as well..." After his pathetic attempt to flirt with Adrian, Franziska chased him back to his car, whip flying the entire way.

When they sat down to eat their dinner, Franziska opened her box of food. Adrian spoke up in a teasing tone; "Last warning, Friska...It's really hot."

Franziska replied only by taking the first bite of her food. Immediately afterwards, her face turned red and she began to sweat as she swallowed her food; she got up and ran towards the sink, drinking the water straight from the faucet.

Adrian watched her the whole time and was laughing like a hyena; with anyone else, she would be humiliated, but she only smiled and decided to get Adrian back for her prank later that night.


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

Adrian awoke to the sight of Franziska in bed beside her; this was uncommon, as Franziska usually was up by around 5:30, and it was around 9:15 at the moment. She quietly got out of the bed and crept down the stairs, as if she were a child on christmas morning. She walked into the kitchen with the intent of making bacon and eggs the way her mom used to for her and Franziska's breakfast that morning. She was glad Friska slept in today; she needed the rest.

Grunhilda apparantly saw Adrian in the kitchen and was obliged to do her a job, as the she tried taking the frying pan away from Adrian, and because Grunhilda didn't speak any English and Adrian didn't speak any German, there was a language barrier between them and Adrian couldn't get her point across.

They struggled over the frying pan for a few minutes until Grunhilda realized Adrian's intentions and let her be, apologizing to her master's girlfriend as she slowly backed away.

With Grunhilda out of the way, Adrian was finally able to begin cooking. She placed the bacon evenly spread apart on a tinfoil-clad baking pan; her mom explained cooking bacon this way as a healthier alternative to frying and it also freed space on the stove for the eggs to be cooked.

After she was done preparing breakfast, Grunhilda fixed them 2 cups of coffee how they liked it and helped Adrian fix the table for Franziska.

Franziska awoke with a shudder as she realized that she had slept until 9:30; she despised sleeping in, no matter how early or late it was. She did not wake up after 6 under any circumstances; sleeping late was just a waste of the day that could not be redeemed.

She rubbed her right eye as she drowsily bumbled down the stairs; the closer she got to the first floor of her house, the more she smelled the aroma of bacon and fresh coffee.

She walked into the dining room to see Adrian and her cute, playful grin standing over a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and coffee.

"Good morning, sunbeam." Adrian's voice had that cute, high-pitched quality to in contrast to Franziska's somewhat deep and heavily-German-accented tone.

"Good morning, _meine liebe. _Did you make this yourself?"

Adrian blushed; "Ah, well...Grunhilda made the coffee."

Franziska returned a blush in appreciation. After this exchange, they sat down and began their meal.

Franziska noted how the bacon wasn't greasy as it was when Grunhilda made it for her; she didn't say anything, but she really did prefer the greasier bacon.

A little ways into their meal, Adrian began talking with her mouth full of food, but she was still very understandable and coherent in her speech, as if she had perfected the art of talking and eating at the same time. "So, Worldwide Studios and Global Studios are joining together today to have a parade showcasing both of the studio's best characters. I thought that sounded like a fun thing for us to do together today. What do you think?"

Franziska mulled over this for a moment; _I don't really have any plans today...I was sure I'd be working. _She noted the gleam in Adrian's eyes as she talked about the parade.

"Ok. That's fine."

Adrian clapped her hands out of excitement. "Sounds like a plan, Fran." She seemed to be quite proud of her rhyme she had come up with on the spot, as she kept glowing with excitement. The young blonde's ADHD was one of Franziska's favorite qualities about her.

However, Franziska quickly realized there might be a problem with one of the floats; _If there were to be a Nickel Samurai float, there's no doubt it would invoke bad memories of that insidious man she worked for..._

Franziska decided it would be best if she were to address this promptly; "Adrian...what about the Nickel Samurai? ...would you be ok if they were to showcase a float of that character?"

Adrian kept on grinning, however; "They're not going to. They cut all ties with that character after Mr. Engarde's trial. That trial really hurt the studio's public image, so they dropped everything about the Nickel Samurai like a bad habit."

Franziska was at ease with Adrian's confidence as she kept radiating. "The parade starts at 11, so we've got an hour until then. Let's get ready! Come on!"

Adrian started to get up, but Franziska had one more question to ask before they left the table. "Adrian, you seem extremely happy this morning. Why is that?"

Adrian shot Franziska that playful grin. "After yesterday, I finally feel at ease about my past love-life." She leaned over the table and kissed Franziska on the forehead. "Thanks to you, I had the best day of my life. Thank you, Friska. I love you."

Franziska blushed; yesterday had been the best day of her life, too. "I love you too..." She decided it was time to give Adrian a pet name. "..._Sonnenstrahl." _

Adrian shot her a puzzled look. "What's that mean?"

Franziska gave Adrian a promiscuous smirk. "...Sunbeam. You're my sunbeam, Adrian."

Adrian blushed; "Awwww..." She couldn't help but let out that sound. No one had ever said something that sweet to her before.

With that, both women made their way up to Franziska's room to get dressed for the day.

They both wore their usual clothes; Franziska's formal German-themed attire and Adrian's dark blue tank top over a light blue pair of pants.

They arrived at the parade around 10:55. They had found an uncrowded area across the street from the hospital Edgeworth was staying at. When Franziska looked up towards his window, she was not in the slightest bit surprised to see him standing at the window watching the parade over a cup of tea. She smirked as she thought _That rabid fanboy..._

Franziska heard a shrill, mousey voice yelling; "COME ON, NICK! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!"

She and Adrian looked to their left to see Maya Fey pulling Phoenix Wright along hurredly through the small crowd. _Ughhh...not this pest._

She had always found Maya to be, to say it in the kindest way possible, unbearably annoying.

Maya stopped herself and, by extension, Phoenix Wright, when she caught sight of Franziska and Adrian.

She happily greeted both of the women; "Frannie! Ms. Andrews! I didn't expect to see you here together! What're you two doing?"

_Ughhhhh..._Franziska choked back an irritated groan as she gave Adrian the ok to tell her.

"Um...well...Maya..we're together now. Me and Friska, that is."

Maya still seemed much too ecstatic. "Ahh! That's so cool! What do you think, Nick?"

Phoenix didn't know how to respond. However, before he even had the oppurtunity to do so, he felt Franziska's whip lashing him. _CRACK!_

He let out a yelp. "Ow! What was that for!? I didn't even say anything."

Franziska shot him that smug look; "We're not in court, Mr. Wright. No one's in any position to be judging anyone else."

With that, Pearl Fey, Maya's younger cousin, ran up to Phoenix and Maya holding a small Pink Princess flag in her right hand.

"Mystic Maya! Look what I got for free! The man selling them wanted me to pay for it...but all I had was Kurain dollars...so he said if he got my dad to pay him twice as much later, he'd give it to me for free!"

Phoenix looked at Pearl curiously; "And how much did this flag cost before you got it, Pearls?"

Pearl looked as if she had just gotten a great deal. "Only $10! So...um...hold on...I'm doing the math..." Franziska and Adrian looked at each other in agreement that the 9-year-old looked adorable while trying so hard to double $10.

"...! $20! That's all! Didn't I get a great deal, Mr. Nick?"

Wright started sweating like he did in court. "Y-yeah, sure, Pearls."

Maya pulled Pearl in front of her and Phoenix and facing Franziska and Adrian. "Pearly, you remember Adrian Andrews and Franziska von Karma, don't you?"

Pearl ran up to Adrian and hugged her. "Hi! You did a great job with the Treasures of Kurain exhibit. You even fixed Mystic Ami's urn! Thanks you!" Adrian returned the hug and tried remaining humble. "Ah, it's no big deal..."

However, when she turned to Franziska, she just vacantly stared at her and turned back to Maya and Phoenix Wright. Franziska was bothered by this; but she knew Pearl didn't understand everything about her change yet, but she knew Franziska had tried really hard to get Maya convicted of murder, and had held the blue-haired prosecuting prodigy in disdain ever since.

When Pearl was back in front of Maya, she explained to her about Adrian and Franziska's relationship. Everyone was surprised to see Pearl's support, as they just assumed Pearl wouldn't understand a same-sex relationship because she didn't even know what that meant. She just held her hand on her face and said "So Ms. Adrian and Ms. von Karma are like you and Mr. Nick?"

Maya and Phoenix looked at each other for a second and smiled. Maya answered "Yes. Yes they are, Pearly."

Pearl was really excited now; she asked Adrian "So...is Ms. von Karma your special someone?"

Adrian and Franziska just looked at each other and smiled. Adrian answered with a "Yes she is. And I wouldn't want anyone else to be my special someone other than Friska."

Pearl then turned to Franziska and began yelling, albeit in a cute voice, although she was very serious; "And you! You better love Ms. Adrian like she loves you! Or else!" Pearl raised her flag in the air as if she was ready to declare war.

Franziska was boiled red; she never seemed to be able to have a conversation with this little girl without being humiliated. "I...I...of course I do." She turned to Adrian and grabbed her hand; "She's the only special someone for me."

Pearl seemed to deem this as an acceptable answer, but still crossed her arms and said "Hmph."

After a while, it had become clear that they would all be watching the parade together. Phoenix held Pearl on his shoulders so she could see and Maya snuggled into his side, and Adrian wrapped her arms around Franziska's right arm as they leaned on the railing seperating the crowd from the parade. As the floats came by them one by one, Maya and Adrian bonded over their knowledge of every character being displayed on the floats, while Phoenix pointed out the Pink Princess, Pearl's new favorite tv show (although one she'd never seen before.) Franziska didn't pay much attention to the parade, but instead looked up at her little brother in the hospital room displaying a child-like fascination with the characters.

After people began clearing out of the streets, Maya invited her new "BFF" Adrian and Franziska to go on a picnic they had planned to go on after the parade in the park. They decided it sounded like it'd be fun, so they all walked over to the park together, with Adrian and Franzisk's hand's interlocked as Adrian made conversation with Maya, who wasn't holding hands with Phoenix because he was giving Pearl a piggy-back ride.

After they had situated themselves on their picnic blankets, Adrian and Franziska sharing one and Maya, Phoenix, and Pearl sharing the other, they began eating their lunch.

Not far into their lunch, they saw a few men and women approaching them, led by a familiar scragilly-haired dirty backwoodsmen.

This appeared to be a small mob of protestors holding picket signs reading "God gave up on Fags" and "God hates you." Franziska and Adrian grew worried as they approached the scene of the picnic.

Finally the man's shadow clouded over Franziska and Adrian's vision, and they could ignore him no longer.

He snorted as he spit out tobacco juice onto Franziska's sandwich. "We're here to protest the gay rights rally being held here later on, but seeing as I can remember y'all from the store, I thought we should pay y'all a little visit..." With this, he pulled a water balloon filled with animal blood from behind his back and threw it at Adrian, and then he got another one and pelted Franziska with it. "That's to show the blood of y'all that should be spilt for takin' the lord's word..." before he could finish, a loud _SMACK _echoed throughout the park as the man fell backwards into the arms of his crowd he was leading.

When Franziska and Adrian looked up, they saw Phoenix had decked the man, giving him a rather severe nosebleed.

He stood up and cracked his neck; "This ain't over! It ain't over for none of y'all! I shall bring judgement down onto all 5 of you myself in the name of the lord! I swear on the holy bible itself!"

With that they left. Maya and Phoenix helped Franziska and Adrian up off the ground, as both women were almost in tears. Maya said in the softest, most sensitive voice possible "Here...let's go get you two cleaned up." As they were walking back to Phoenix's Prius, Pearl grabbed onto Franziska's hand tight.

"It's ok, Ms. von Karma. I'm here for you."


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

After Franziska and Adrian had cleaned themselves up from their balloon bombing earlier, Adrian and Maya made plans for them to all go on a double date for lunch the next day. After this, Franziska and Adrian went on their way.

Adrian seemed happy despite the bloodstains on her clothes; "What nice people. So, what do you want to do now?"

Franziska knew exactly what she wanted to do; "Let's go home and change into some clothes that don't reek of animal blood."

Adrian smiled; "OK. Sounds good to me!"

With this, they quickly made their way back to Franziska's BMW to avoid being seen in their bloodstained-attire.

As she drove them back to the von Karma manor, Franziska didn't know what to think of what those people had done for her and Adrian; Phoenix Wright was her enemy, Pearl seemed to hate her, and Maya was just...nnrrgghh. And yet, they had helped her and Adrian up when she expected them to be the type to kick them when they were down.

They pulled into the garage and made their way into the house, up the stairs, and into Franziska's room to get out of the bloody mess they were dressed in. Upon changing clothes, Adrian realized that she needed more clothes, so she put on her blue silk pajamas and asked Franziska if she could take her back up to her apartment later.

With that, they situated themselves on Franziska's couch and tried finding something entertaining to watch, but they couldn't find anything. Franziska turned off the tv.

Adrian laid her head down in Franziska's lap and looked up at her. "Franziska...I'm proud of you for not hitting that man with your whip until he passed out today."

Franziska smiled as she twisted Adrian's hair around her finger. "_Danke."_

They sat like this as they tried to figure out something to do together. Soon, however, the smell of fresh apple pie filled the house.

Franziska recognized this apple pie as Grunhilda's special recipe. She often cooked it for her and Miles when one of them had a bad day when they were growing up. It was easily the most delicious food she had ever eaten.

Both women inhaled the aroma as Grunhilda brought it to them on a special serving platter along with two small plates and two forks gilded in gold. _She's always been able to tell when I've had a bad day..._Franziska chuckled. _...albeit Adrian and I did walk in wearing clothes drenched in animal blood._

Franziska enjoyed a single slice of pie in a refined, slow manner, whilst Adrian wolfed hers down. After Franziska had finished her slice, Adrian rested her head in her lap once more while Franziska fed her some more of the pie.

Adrian spoke while eating, although she was able to do this quite well "I swear, if I was fed food like this all the time, I'd be the fattest woman in history. Just how do you keep your figure, Friska? This pie has got to be loaded down with butter and carbs and..."

_Just how she's able to eat, talk, and lay in this position without choking to death is astounding. _Franziska put a really big bite of pie into Adrian's mouth to stop her from talking and smiled down at her; "I can see your food as you're chewing it, _Sonnenstrahl."_

Adrian blushed with embarressment and gave Franziska a closed mouth smile.

Franziska reached over and picked up the tv remote and turned on the evening news. The same large-jawed man spoke over the current events, but nothing exciting came on for awhile so Franziska just focused on feeding Adrian pie; she thought doing this while the petite blonde was laying in her lap was, for a lack of better words, sexy.

Adrian sat up as the anchorman then proceeded to say something about a gay rights rally held in the park earlier that evening that was rudely interrupted by the same group of people they had the encounter with earlier that day; they were holding signs saying such awful things about homosexuals that the women didn't even care to read them to themselves and the activists were being pelted with balloons the newscast confirmed to be cow's blood that were the same as the ones they had been hit with earlier.

Franziska got very angry at this sight and turned off the tv; Adrian looked over at her and put her hand on Franziska's shoulder. "Friska, just think about it this way; in 10 years, people are going to look back at this and think about how awful those people are for doing that.

However, these words didn't help Franziska; she just wanted to hit something with her whip.

"Adrian, how do you feel about ordering delivery from the same chinese restuarant that we ordered from last night?"


	20. Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

Adrian had drifted off into a dream; she was riding a horse around a grass field, the skyline pink from the sunset on the warm summer day her mind had created for her as she slept; fantasy shattered and reality set back in as she felt Franziska jump up from her nighttime slumber with a gasp.

Adrian sat up; she was still too sleepy to understand anything other than Franziska must've had a nightmare; She put her hand on Franziska's shoulder and let out a yawn.

*YAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNN* "Urmp..urghh..what's wrong, Friska?"

Franziska sat up in bed, clinching her sheets tight against her body; "N-nothing..."

Adrian reached around her and turned the lamp on and stood up out of bed. "Come on, Friska. I'll fix us some coffee and we can talk, ok?" Franziska still remained sitting upright in bed, and Adrian was able to see that the young German prodigy appeared as if she had witnessed a murder. She walked around the bed and sat beside her with her arm wrapped around her shoulder.

Franziska spoke up. "Adrian..." She turned to look at her lover. "...you'll never leave me because I'm not perfect, will you?"

Adrian said her next words with a strong sense of urgency yet with the caring of a mother; "Franziska. We all have flaws...and part of being in love is seeing and accepting your partner's flaws. No one's individually perfect; people can only achieve perfection when they have someone else in their lives to fill up those holes and fix those flaws...that's love; and when we're together, I think we're perfect."

Franziska began tearing up; no one had ever said anything that nice to her before. Although she had realized the error of her ways, she still felt so flawed, so imperfect, as if her father was rolling over in his grave because of her. She was at a complete loss for words;

"I...I...I..."

Adrian kissed Franziska before she could let out her sentence; "I love you too, Friska." With that, she reached around and turned off the lamp. "Now, let's get some sleep; don't forget, we got a double date for lunch today."

Before Adrian could get completely settled, Franziska stopped her once more. "Adrian..."

Adrian looked back up at Franziska, who had yet to lay back down; "Yes, Friska?"

Franziska had no idea how her next words would go over, but she knew she had been wanting to ask Adrian this question for a while now. "When I go back to work next week...I don't want you to leave. Will you come live with me and Grunhilda?"

Adrian just smiled; "I never planned on leaving, Friska."

With that, Franziska felt at ease. Adrian spoke once more. "Now, let's get some shuteye. Goodnight, Friska."

"Goodnight, Adrian."

The next morning, Franziska woke up at 6; this was sleeping pretty late to her. She knew Adrian would most likely not be awake until at least 9. These 3 hours of alone time were good for her. They let her contemplate her attire for that day (although most of her clothes looked almost exactly alike) and read on her laptop over a cup of coffee. She had recently discovered a website where she could purchase books and put them on her laptop; of course, she bought _To Kill a Mockingbird _first; Miles had always told her about how Atticus Finch reminded him of his dad when her father was gone on a prosecuting trip and Grunhilda was in charge, taking off the daily pressure of justy being in his prescence. _Miles...I need to see him today. _

With the exception of Adrian, she had never been as close with anyone as she was with her little brother, whether she like to admit it or not. They really bonded over their time together; Franziska would often just listen to him talk about the things that he missed, like his dad or Phoenix and Larry. She worried about his well-being now that he was in the hospital.

She went to the hospital's website to check visiting hours; _8:00 AM to 5:30 PM. I'll wait until after our lunch date so that way Adrian won't be waking up alone. _With that, Franziska opened up the application for reading her new library of books.

As she immersed herself into the story being told through the pages, time flew by from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock, and Adrian had come bumbling down the stairs in her usual morning-time manner.

She walked into the kitchen and came back out with a cup of coffee and took a seat beside Franziska on the couch, turning on the morning news as she did so.

"Morning, Friska!"

"_Gutenmorgen, Sonnenstrahl."_

"Whatcha' readin'?" Adrian said in her most adorable and child-like voice as she leaned over Franziska and her laptop.

"_To Kill a Mockingbird."_ Franziska said as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Oh, you really like that book, huh? I'm going to read it some time, just to see what it's about."

Franziska smiled as she took another sip of her coffee. 

They sat in a pleasant silence together until around 11 o'clock came around.

Adrian had become too lost in a mid-morning talk show to notice she only had an hour to get ready for their date with Phoenix and Maya later on.

Franziska snapped her fingers and pointed at the clock; "O-oh! Dammit, I need to hurry!" Adrian began taking the top off of her blue silk pajamas as she ran up the stairs hurredly.

45 minutes later, Adrian came back down the stairs with black speckled cocktail dress on and her favorite shade of red lipstick. "Are you ready, Friska?"

Franziska could only smile as she gazed at the love of her life's breathtaking appearance. "Yes, _Sonnenstrahl." _Franziska didn't feel the need to prepare herself any further for her and Adrian's appointment; after all, it was just Phoenix Wright and Maya, and Adrian looked beautiful enough for both of them that afternoon.


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

Franziska and Adrian pulled into what appeared to be a quaint French-themed cafe, and before they had gotten there, Franziska had informed Adrian of how she planned to go visit Edgeworth after the double date.

The date went well; nothing particularly out of the norm happened. Phoenix was lashed with Franziska's whip a couple of time for subpar table manners (He simply didn't pull the chair out for Maya upon arriving at the table) and Maya and Adrian discussed tv shows and the like. It went fairly well. The food wasn't very good though, and the chef was quite strange; Franziska had trouble distinguishing whether it was a man or a woman.

After the couples parted ways, Adrian and Franziska made their way over to the hospital to see Edgeworth.

They arrived at the hospital room to see Edgeworth laying in his bed while drinking some tea; He greeted them first. "Franziska. Adrian. I'm glad you two decided to come today; I have something rather urgent I need to discuss with you in particular, Franziska."

Franziska remained composed; "Yes, what is it?"

Edgeworth took a sip of his tea; "After I'm released from the hospital's care, I am to be leaving the country for a while."

Franziska's heart dropped. "What for?"

Edgeworth stood up out of bed; "I have been asked to help Interpol investigate a massive counterfeiting operation that has left the Republic of Zheng Fa in shambles; I am to depart later tonight. I just wanted to wish you a farewell until we meet again."

Franziska should've expected this; she was greatly hurt that he was to be leaving her again, but she remained tough. "I wish you luck in your investigations, Miles."

Adrian piped up; "Hey! Why don't we go see you off at the airport? I mean, I have some more packing to do at my apartment, and when we're done with that, we could meet up there before you leave. How's that sound?"

Edgeworth hid his desire for that to happen and remained completely apathetic; "I believe you should be asking Franziska that question, not myself."

Adrian turned towards Franziska with a smile; "So, how about it?" She had her hands held together in a pleading manner.

Franziska really didn't want to watch Edgeworth leave her again; but the more she saw Adrian's pleas, she found it harder to say no, no matter how difficult it we be to watch him go.

"I...I...I..." Franziska finally conceded. "...Ok. We'll go to the airport when we get done packing your belongings,Adrian."

Adrian was overjoyed by this, while Miles hid his pleasure quite well. After a few more minutes of idle chatter, Franziska and Adrian left the hospital to go pack.

However, when Franziska pulled the BMW out of the parking lot, she turned in the opposite direction of Adrian's apartment.

Adrian was confused; "Um...Friska? My apartment is the other way..."

Franziska simply nodded. "Yes. I know. I have something I must retrieve from the manor though, and it is of great urgency I do so." Adrian had an idea of what it was.

When they pulled into the garage, Franziska ran out of the vehicle and left the car running, signaling Adrian to stay in it.

She returned with a brown package tied together by a small piece of string. With that, they made their way over to Adrian's apartment to pack.

As they chose what to place in the brown cardboard boxes, Adrian came across a picture of her and Celeste. Before she packed it, she pulled the picture out of the frame and replaced it with one of her copies of the photos she and Franziska took in the backyard garden. She smiled as she set it down gently in the box.

When they were done packing everything and loaded it into the backseat of Franziska BMW, they started towards the airport.

They arrived to see Miles Edgeworth reading a newspaper as he awaited takeoff time; his designer black leather suitcase had a small tea-stain on it.

As they approached him, a voice came over the airports PA system: "Flight I-11 for the Republic of Zheng Fa is now being boarded, please make your way over to the nearest gate for further instruction."

Edgeworth got up to make his way over to the takeoff gate, but stopped as he saw Franziska and Adrian.

"Hello Franziska, Adrian. My flight is being boarded, so we must make haste with our goodbyes."

Adrian ran up to him in tears and blew her nose on his cravat, leaving him visibly rattled; "Oh, Mr. Edgeworth! I'm gonna miss you!" She gave him a big hug.

Miles turned to Franziska, as she was tapping her foot with her eyes closed in thought.

"Until we meet again, Franziska."

The woman came over the PA system for one more announcement; "Last call for Flight I-11 to the Republic of Zheng Fa, last call for flight I-11 to the Republic of Zheng Fa."

Edgeworth gave them both a wave goodbye as he grabbed his suitcase and turned towards the exit gate.

"Miles, wait!" Franziska had caught his attention before he could leave.

"Here. Take this before you leave." She handed him the brown package.

Edgeworth smiled in appreciation; "Thank you, Franziska."

Franziska grasped at remaining composed for just a little while longer; "Farewell, younger brother."

With that, Miles Edgeworth turned and walked through the gate and boarded the plane, leaving Franziska von Karma behind once more.

Later that night, Adrian had hooked up her DVD player to Franziska's Vizio and put in a romantic comedy for them to watch together. Franziska called for Grunhilda to pop them some popcorn and bring them some wine from her father's wine cellar.

As the movie began to play, Grunhilda approached the two women with a bottle of vintage wine and a large bowl of popcorn.

Adrian smiled; "Popcorn and wine...I remember we had that the first time we watched a movie together at my apartment..."

Franziska smiled back; "And yet, the odd combination of class and common-place made the perfect pairing..." They shared a deep, passionate kiss as Grunhilda poured them their wine.

Miles Edgeworth couldn't stand the anxiety of not knowing what was in the package Franziska had handed him at the airport. As the pilot made the announcement over the plane's PA system "Passengers, we are now in the Republic of Zheng Fa. I hope you have enjoyed the flight, and please fly with iFly airlines again soon."

After picking his bag up from the luggage carosoul, he quickly took a seat as he dug through for the small brown package.

He pulled it out of his suitcase and looked at it for a second; _I wonder what in the name of all I believe in what could be in this thing..._

He untied the small string keeping the package held together and unfolded the brown wrapping;

Inside the package lay the copy of his favorite book, _To Kill a Mockingbird, _which he had given to Franziska when they were children. He saw a piece of paper sticking out of the very front and opened to that part of the book.

A note written by Franziska was on the hardcover; "_Until we meet again, Miles Edgeworth. -Franziska von Karma."_

He then unfolded the piece of paper and saw a child's drawing of himself and Franziska when they were younger; the artist's signature read _Franziska von Karma, Age 9_

Edgeworth couldn't hide a warm smile as he saw the picture; "Until we meet again, Franziska von Karma. Until we meet again..."


End file.
